Protectionist Trade Policy Picks Winners and Makes Us All Losers
President Trump recently threatened to impose over $200 billion in new tariffs-on products ranging from car parts and purses to […]
trade
In 1970, Milton Friedman Called for Unilateral Free Trade Rather Than Retaliation. We Still Haven’t Learned That Simple Lesson.
Between 1966 and 1983, Milton Friedman (pictured above at the American Enterprise Institute in the 1970s) wrote more than 300 […]
Free Trade or Protectionism: Let’s Boil It Down to the Basics
The policies and, even more, the tweets of the current President of the United States have made trade and trade […]
Free Trade Makes Us All Richer (Even If Other Countries Don’t ‘Play Fair’)
This week my colleague Ryan Young rightly warned that the White House’s newly announced tariffs on Chinese goods will harm […]
No, This Won’t Be a ‘Trade War to End All Trade Wars’
It is no surprise that President Trump’s trade war has many supporters. An understanding of the law of comparative advantage […]
No One Comes Out the Victor in a Trade War
The President is at it again, having made good on his promises to punish foreigners in the United States he […]
The U.S. Starts a Trade War-With Its Allies
The temporary exemptions to the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum granted to Canada, Mexico, and the European Union […]
I Just Bought a ThinkPad from a Company in China. The UPS Tracking Reveals the Miracle of Trade.
In 1919, John Maynard Keynes wrote: What an extraordinary episode in the economic progress of man that age was which came to […]
Free Trade Is the Best Policy, No Matter What
Today’s quotation of the day is from Albert Gallatin’s January 1832 essay, “Memorial of the Committee of the Free Trade […]
Free Trade Lets Us Turn Corn into Cars
People often see international trade and immigration as a way that foreigners take advantage of us, but economists, whether they’re […]
Free Trade Isn’t Killing Jobs
Free Trade The economic argument for free international trade is basically that people produce in order to consume, not the other way […]
Brexit Britain Should Adopt Unilateral Free Trade
Adam Smith once observed that “Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; and the interest of the […]
Trade Deficits Don’t Matter – Unless Caused by Government
In 2016, the US exported goods and services equal to $2.209 trillion, and imported goods and services with a market […]
Negative Balance of Trade? So What?
The tendency of the USA to have a negative balance of trade (more accurately known as a negative balance on […]
Free Trade Puts America First
I would venture to say that in the USA there is a consensus for making “America First.” Nothing wrong with […]