The Economist
notes –
“ Trade creates many
losers, and rapid immigration can disrupt communities. But the best way to
address these problems is not to throw up barriers. It is to devise bold
policies that preserve the benefits of openness while alleviating its
side-effects. Let goods and investment flow freely, but strengthen the social
safety-net to offer support and new opportunities for those whose jobs are destroyed.
To manage immigration flows better, invest in public infrastructure, ensure
that immigrants work and allow for rules that limit surges of people (just as
global trade rules allow countries to limit surges in imports). But don’t
equate managing globalisation with abandoning it.”
GLOBALISATION AND POLITICS: DRAWBRIDGES UP
The Bell of Globalization Cannot be Un-rung by Phillip Lohaus (research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute)
“Whatever
“globalization” is — the term is employed so loosely that it has lost nearly
all meaning — it is not the real cause of America’s populist anger; it’s a
scapegoat. It is true that trade creates “winners” and “losers,” but on the
whole, free trade has been a net positive for the United States.”
Brexit Won’t Stop Globalization [Bloomberg Businessweek cover story by Michael Schuman]
Related: http://www.dw.com/en/brexit-the-end-of-globalization/a-19369680
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“The rich West launched globalization on the ideal that nations tied together by bonds of trade, money, and culture are less likely to destroy one another. Now those in the U.S. and Europe who believe themselves hurt by the massive changes wrought by globalization want to reverse it. Isolationism is being heralded as independence.
But anyone who thinks globalization is dead misreads what’s really happening. While there are pockets of resistance, much of the world is still forging tighter links between countries, companies, and communities. Rather than retrenching, globalization is deepening and expanding—whether angry Trump supporters or British Leave voters like it or not.”Related: http://www.dw.com/en/brexit-the-end-of-globalization/a-19369680
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A list of interesting and highly informative readings on international trade:
Articles –
You and Donald Trump Might Not Like Free Trade, but It’s Been Good to You Both by Daniel Ikenson
Beyond the American Manufacturing Competitiveness Act: Congress Should Get More Serious about Tariff Reform by Daniel Ikenson
Five Big Truths about Trade by Alan Blinder
Frédéric Bastiat’s classic from 1845 –
Books for the general reader –
Free Trade under Fire (4th Edition) by Douglas A. Irwin
Mad About Trade: Why Main Street America should Embrace Globalization by Daniel T. Griswold
The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy (2nd edition) by Pietra Rivoli
The Choice: A Fable of Free Trade and Protection (3rd Edition) by Russell Roberts
Pop Internationalism by Paul Krugman
Protectionism (Ohlin Lectures) by Jagdish N. Bhagwati
The Wind of the Hundred Days: How Washington Mismanaged Globalization by Jagdish N. Bhagwati
A Stream of Windows: Unsettling Reflections on Trade, Immigration, and Democracy by Jagdish N. Bhagwati