*Photo by Gregory Bull/Associated Press. Design by Louise Bova.
How the Internet and E-Commerce Are Hacking Protectionism
What the U.S. Can Do to Help Small Online Entrepreneurs Tap the Global Marketplace
Consider two distinct worlds only a few miles from each other. One world is that of Jennifer and Nicole, recently featured in The New York Times, who have worked all their lives at the Carrier air conditioner factory in Indianapolis and eagerly expect President Trump to impose tariffs on air conditioners to prevent their factory from moving to Mexico. The other world is that of Travis, who lives 150 miles away in Elkhart, Indiana, and started his online business at $3,500 and today sells motorbike gear to 131 countries and …
The Cap-and-Trade Solution to Our Trade Dispute With China
Warren Buffett’s Three-Decade-Old Plan Could Finally Be the Right Idea
President-elect Trump’s criticism of our trading relationship with China and our trade deficit with that nation has produced predictable reactions. Economists warn against “protectionism” and the dangers of trade wars. Alarmed diplomats remind us of the American interest in maintaining good relations with China to deal with such matters as North Korea’s threatening behavior.
These reactions are predictable because we have heard them all before. Back in the 1980s, the trade villain de jour was Japan. (China was just emerging into world markets.) Proposals to address trade deficits with Japan provoked …
Are Trade Shocks to Blame for Our Extremist Politics?
Researchers Hunt for the Missing Link Between Import Imbalances and Populist Anger
Does economic competition from low-wage manufacturing countries like China make politics in Western countries more …
If You Want Strawberry Fields Forever, You Need Migrant Labor
A Year-Round Supply of Low-Priced Food Demands Seasonal Workers Free to Cross Borders
Two hundred years ago this year, British economist David Ricardo published his monumental work “On The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation.” In it …
The "Aliens" Taking Our Jobs Are Not the Illegal Kind
The Backlash Against International Trade Is Rooted in Real but Misplaced Fears
Can we have all the adults in the room stand up and chant in unison: “Who’s Afraid of Global Trade? Who’s Afraid of Global Trade?” That should calm us down. It worked for the three little pigs. …
Want to Really Help Workers? Then Embrace Free Trade
Protectionist Barriers Won't Stop Robots from Taking U.S. Jobs
Ideas, innovation, exploration, and entrepreneurship make societies rich. When you buy something built elsewhere you are not just buying a fancy new object. You are importing ideas and innovation. When we welcome traders and merchants, with their wares and goods they exchange with ours, we trade not just goods and services, we open our minds to new ways of doing things—doing it more efficiently, more economically, and sometimes more aesthetically—breeding entrepreneurship. When we work with scientists, religious scholars, political …