Free Trade and the Tea Party: Puppets or Rebels?
Ian Fletcher Activist Post My job deprives me of the luxury of partisanship, as I have to reach out to both sides on the issue…
Ian Fletcher
Free Trade Theory Known to be Wrong—Since 1817!
Ian Fletcher Activist Post The economic argument for free trade is ultimately based on the theory of comparative advantage, invented by David Ricardo in 1817….
Protectionism of the Future vs. Protectionism of the Past
Ian Fletcher Activist Post Protectionism is frequently tarred as a backward-looking policy which merely preserves yesterday’s jobs at the expense of tomorrow’s. This is…
Does Free Trade Cause a Race to the Bottom? Yes and No.
Ian Fletcher Activist Post The notorious “race to the bottom,” in which free trade causes the lowest standard in the entire world for wages, working…
Do Ideas Matter in Economic Policy, or Just Special Interests?
Ian Fletcher Activist Post It’s a depressing thought, familiar to everyone who has ever argued with anyone else about economics: do ideas about what’s true…
The Social Snobbery of Free Trade
Ian Fletcher Activist Post Skepticism about free trade is often stigmatized with ad hominem attacks. These mostly come down to variations on the following: Protectionists…
Currency Revaluation Won’t Fix America’s Trade Mess
Ian Fletcher Activist Post It is sometimes suggested that our trade problems (job losses, international indebtedness) will go away on their own once currency values…
Dreamy Thinking on Free Trade
Ian Fletcher Activist Post Globalization and, more specifically, free trade have a remarkable capacity for inducing dreamy thinking in American minds. The “everything will be…
U.S. Manufacturing “Red Hot”? Dream On
Ian Fletcher Activist Post There is an article in the Huffington Post which, before apparently being retitled, asserted in its headline that U.S. manufacturing is…
We Can’t Just Compensate Free Trade’s Losers
Ian Fletcher Activist Post It is sometimes argued that although free trade has some victims, its benefits exceed its costs, so it is possible for…
Why a Flat Tariff on All U.S. Imports Would Work
Ian Fletcher Activist Post I advocate protectionism. But one standard criticism is that this would just result in politically connected industries getting tariffs raised on…
In Praise of Mercantilism, or Why Economic History Isn’t Boring
Ian Fletcher Activist Post Does economic history hold a giant clue for getting America out of its present trade mess? Yes, because it debunks the…
Yes We Can! (Fix Our Trade Mess)
Ian Fletcher Activist Post The fashionable despair of America fixing its trade mess is a mistake. For example, the standard objection to taking a stick…
Why Have Nations At All? The Case For Economic Borders
Ian Fletcher Activist Post Why have nations at all, economically speaking? This question is provoked by the fact that every few months, without fail, somebody…