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...We do not have true “free trade” and we never have. This is an economic concept/ideal which runs headlong into politics which require it to be modified ...

Interesting that you denigrate myself, hedgetrimmer, and apoliticalone based upon a definition of free trade that you admit never has existed because of politics. Your snide remarks are at best disingenuous.

We are looking at the reality of 'free trade' as is has been practiced (GATT, NATO, WTO ...), and its disastrous results.

Your ideal exists in a world devoid of the dark side of human nature or what Bastiat in the Law referred to as the common tendency of man to prosper at the expense of others.

This is the same trap that communists fall into - idealizing human nature. The mantra 'From each according to his ability and to each according to his need' is poetic but ignores human nature.

Because of human nature we need laws against murder, fraud, and treason. Because of human nature our Founding Fathers designed a constitution to split political power among the executive, judicial, and legislative branches, and among federal, state and local government.

We are looking at 'free trade as it exists, the destruction it has wroth, and how to reverse it. China, India, etc have declared an economic war upon the US, and our esteemed leaders have raised the white flag (no doubt as a quid pro quo for 'campaign contributions').

You're correct! arrogantsob sounds like the communists at the fall of the Soviet Union saying," communism is still good! We just didn't to it 'right'. Give us another chance".

Well they're getting their chance using the 'free trade' tool, and it STILL doesn't work (unless you're the ones skimming off the top)

Feel free to feel “denigrated” by my concept of free trade but it certainly should not result from that concept.

Nor has our current economic situation been a result of trade agreements. Our economy is in the toilet because government policies far more than because of trade agreements.

Why would people try and shift the blame from the federal government to private institutions? I mean allegedly conservative people, we know why Obama does this but why alleged conservatives?

Was India’s decision to buy billions of dollars worth of planes from Boeing part of its “economic warfare” plan? Now India is an enemy too? Is there any nation which is NOT an enemy among the fevered minds?

As to your remarks about the human dark side. None of it has any bearing on free trade any more than it does upon mathematics. Adam Smith demonstrated how greed and self-aggrandizement is reconciled through the markets. Market failures are the points where government involvement become justifiable to attempt corrections. When the assumptions which frame perfect competition are violated then government may be use.