[curiosity]

See post 131. It's a dirty little secret that mainstream trade economists have identified many instances in which free trade can hurt a country. Unfortunately, the popular press continues to act as if the optimality of free trade is as certain as the proposition that the earth is round.

[Arizona Carolyn]

On the cSPAN program it was the economist (wish I remembered his name -- well known) who is worried about what's taking place; it was the US Chamber of Commerce that was ectsatic over the turn of business events.

As to the Press -- how many reporters majored in economics? other than Krugman (ugh)> I saw the trend to offshore begin when CEO's went from salaries with some perks to large bonus systems based on stock performance. I was working for a large company at the time and the entire atmosphere changed almost overnight... we did make the changes to JIT, which helped, but everything went to stock perforance and major bonuses at the very top with fewer people doing the actual work.