George Will’s excellent op-ed is a must read:
“Hochberg, former head of the Export-Import Bank, notes:
In 1975, before free trade agreements, the average U.S.
supermarket carried 9,000 different products; today, almost 47,000. In 1900, 57
percent of U.S. household income was spent on food and clothing; since the
integration of the world’s economies, 17 percent. As recently as the 1990s,
avocados were mostly confined to California in summer. Today, Americans must
import 85 percent of the 4.25 billion avocados they devour to satisfy their
appetites, which owe much to three trees acquired in trade with Mexico in 1871.
The average American eats seven pounds of avocados per year, often in taco
salads (Romanian corn, Mexican tomatoes, Peruvian onions, etc.). The
best-selling car in the United States for most of this century has been
Toyota’s Camry, assembled in Kentucky. The most all-American car — measured by
American parts, labor and assembly — is Honda’s Odyssey from Alabama. Germans
buy BMW SUVs made in South Carolina. Many iconic “American” products (e.g.,
Rawlings baseballs, Gerber baby foods, Converse shoes, Fender Stratocaster
guitars, Levi’s jeans) are made entirely elsewhere. The iPhone has 748
suppliers in dozens of countries. (Assembled in China, it is counted by U.S.
trade bookkeeping as an import, but China’s value contribution is about $8.46.)”
Can American Capitalism Survive?
Can American Capitalism Survive?
https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/can-american-capitalism-survive
Chicago economist Luigi Zingales on the distinction between ‘Pro-Market’ policies and ‘Pro-Business’ policies
Richard M. Reinsch notes:
“Cass and other economic nationalists are wrong on
both the facts and aims of free trade. Both democratic socialists and economic
nationalists have failed to grasp the fundamental insights of Joseph
Schumpeter, one of the 20th century's most profound thinkers on the nature of
economic processes: The point of free trade is to gain access to a greater
variety of goods and services; we work, ultimately, to consume. Schumpeter also
cautioned policymakers to look at the bigger picture, insisting that economic
problems, or really any economic circumstances, could be better assessed with
the passage of time.”
Chicago economist Luigi Zingales on the distinction between ‘Pro-Market’ policies and ‘Pro-Business’ policies
“A pro-business policy favors existing companies at the expense of
future generations. A pro-market policy favors conditions that allow all
businesses to thrive without any favoritism. A pro-business policy defends
domestic enterprises with favorable rates and treatment. A pro-market policy
opens the domestic market to international competition because doing so would
not only benefit consumers, but would also benefit the companies themselves in
the long term, which will have to learn to be competitive on the market, rather
than prosper thanks to protection and state aid. A pro-business policy turns a
blind eye (often two) when companies pollute, evade, and defraud consumers. A pro-market
policy seeks to reduce the tax and regulatory burden, but ensures that laws are
applied equally to all.”
Poverty Reduction Rests on Trade
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/open-trade-accelerates-poverty-reduction-by-caroline-freund-and-robert-koopman-1-2019-02
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/open-trade-accelerates-poverty-reduction-by-caroline-freund-and-robert-koopman-1-2019-02
How the free market, and not Wall Street, can ensure more
Americans share in prosperity
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/03/20/how-free-market-not-wall-street-can-ensure-more-americans-share-prosperity/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/03/20/how-free-market-not-wall-street-can-ensure-more-americans-share-prosperity/
Book Recommendation:
