It is ironic that the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize wants to send more troops to Afghanistan. Even so, President Obama is in a prime position to work wonders for the cause of peace. He can institute free trade in America.
Trade is the ultimate act of peace. If someone has something you covet, you are faced with a choice. You could take it from him by force. Or you could trade for it. The first option is the root…
Consumers have been buying a lot of tires made in China lately. Naturally, U.S.-based tire manufacturers are upset at their competitors’ success. Fortunately, there are two ways for the aggrieved American firms to ease their troubled minds:
1: Make better tires for less money. Give consumers a reason to buy American tires rather than Chinese. Compete, in other words.
2: Don’t compete. Too much hard work. Instead, persuade some politicians to place a 35 percent protective tariff on competitors’ tires. Price them…
There are many reasons for free-market advocates to be unhappy about current affairs. With numerous pieces of legislation being proposed to put shackles on our economy, it can be quite easy to take a pessimistic outlook on the present state of free markets. But sometimes to be optimistic you just need to look for the silver lining on otherwise dark clouds. Today’s dark cloud: news sources are reporting that a widespread outbreak of blight, the mold responsible for the Irish…
Leggett & Platt, an American innerspring manufacturer, has been busy lobbying the Department of Commerce. The fruit of their labor: a tariff of anywhere from 164.75% to 234.51% on innersprings from China, their biggest competition.
This tariff means that you can expect to pay double for your next mattress. Because innersprings are the most expensive part of traditional mattresses and the tariff has effectively removed affordable, low-priced mattresses from the market.
This is the result of a petition to the International Trade…
Today’s Washington Post and Los Angeles Times both endorse passage of the U.S- Colombia free trade agreement, which many Democratic politicians, pressured by organized labor, have refused to endorse. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has ducked the issue by refusing to bring it to a vote. President-elect Obama got considerable help in his campaign from labor unions that oppose the deal, but no political debt is worth undertaking such a disastrous course as scuttling this trade deal.
Not only is Colombia the United…
Major newspapers around the country including the Washington Post, the LA Times, and the Wall Street Journal are urging President-elect Barack Obama to pass the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement in the lame duck session. The Los Angeles Times said it bluntly, “It’s time to stop playing games with a trade pact whose economic and political benefits are good for both nations.”
Some reports of the meeting between the president-elect and President Bush said that the president had pushed for the trade agreement in exchange…
During the presidential primaries and in the campaigns, there was a lot of rhetoric about the need for “fair” trade instead of free trade. Candidates were in a populist mode, catering to critical manufacturing states that have lost jobs and serving up trade as the villain.
Now that Senator Barack Obama is the President-elect, there is renewed speculation on what path his administration will take on international trade. Will he make good on his campaign rhetoric that echoed the Democratic platform’s call for renegotiation…
If goods do not cross borders, then soldiers will.
It’s an old saying. Maybe even a cliché. But there is some truth to it. What wonderful news, then, that India and Pakistan have re-opened a trade route through the Kashmir region.
Soldiers have been crossing that border for 60 years. Replacing those soldiers with spices, apples, and other, ahem, non-fatal goods will have two positive effects. First, those goods will become cheaper and more abundant in India and Pakistan.
Second, the new trade route…
Some thoughts on why our side is losing in its efforts to promote and defend free trade:
From the time of the GATT onward, the primary approach to trade liberalization has been based on mercantilistic arguments. What will another nation sacrifice to gain the right to benefit our consumers? That approach — always based on real-politics - not intellectual considerations arguably worked in a world where rent-seeking was limited, where the trade negotiation entity (the GATT) was weak, when the focus…
|
|
 |
 
 
|
Loading ...