"He (Trump) laments that America imports cars and exports corn taking the mercantilist position that imports are bad and exports good, alongside a Ross Perot-like fetish for manufactured stuff.
This shows complete ignorance of comparative advantage and trade being about the exchange of things people want and need."
Are you kidding me? Trump knows what "comparative advantage" is and takes advantage of it at every opportunity. Trump buys all kinds of "stuff" from China BECAUSE they have a comparative advantage in the production of "stuff". Yet the writer claims Trump is "complete(ly) ignorant" of comparative advantage. I could tear apart just about every paragraph that follows.
You can criticize Trump for a lot of things but claiming he is ignorant of economics is ridiculous.
Are you kidding me? Trump knows what "comparative advantage" is and takes advantage of it at every opportunity. Trump buys all kinds of "stuff" from China BECAUSE they have a comparative advantage in the production of "stuff". Yet the writer claims Trump is "complete(ly) ignorant" of comparative advantage. I could tear apart just about every paragraph that follows. And when Trump levies his tariffs on imported goods and increased the cost of consumer electronics, appliances, textiles, autos and what have you by 25% to 35% then what?