Free Republic

Free Trade Smackdown: Cato vs. USBIC, Griswold vs. Fletcher http://www.freetradedoesntwork.com/griswold_fletcher_debate.htmMain Street America Benefits from Global Engagement By Daniel Griswold Americans are better off today because of our greater freedom to trade and work with people around the world. Our growing engagement in the world economy has delivered real benefits to Main Street Americans. Competition from trade has blessed American families with lower prices, more choice, and better quality when we spend our paychecks. Because of trade, consumers pay lower prices for food, clothing, shoes, electronics, and cars, which translate directly into higher real incomes. The cars we drive today are...

“Oh, yes, I know, we have recently been told by no less than 365 academic economists that such a thing cannot be . . .Their confidence in the accuracy of their own predictions leaves me breathless. But having been brought up over the shop, I sometimes wonderwhether they pay back their forecasts with their money.” —Margaret Thatcher, 1979 As our $500 billion/yr trade deficit, with its attendant job destruction and long-term damage to our industrial base, continues to spiral out of control, the public may be forgiven for wondering whether there might be problems with the free-trade theories that have...