The front page of today’s (March 28) Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) a change of heart on the part of Princeton economist and former Federal Reserve Board Vice Chairman Alan S. Blinder that free trade is good. It seems he has in mind the millions of American jobs now threatened by the unprecedented ease with which information can be shipped out and back in.
He still doesn’t advocate tariffs or quotas, which is a good thing in view of the fact that what is crossing borders, if anything, is data, in both directions. He does advocate government intervention (with money taken from us) to “help” the economy adjust to the changes he sees in store so, like many supposed free-traders, it seems this one remains a statist.
Well, if trade is the problem, I feel certain that his policies will be successful in reducing it. The account is scary and depressing.
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I was expecting a somewhat more forcefull reply from mises.org, not just cries of “statist! statist!”.
Something on the lines of:
trade lifts 1000 million human beings out of poverty in the last 20 years, Blinder wants it to stop!
As an Asian in one of the countries in Pacific Region, I read news about Free Trade Agreement (FTA) everyday between countries in this region with US, and the most hotly debated issues are the accessibility to North Korean Auto sector, Malaysian Government procurement process, slashing of subsidies in agriculture in Vietnam and Thailand and etc. If these advocates successfully tear down the wall of the protectionists, the consequences will be similar to what are you refering to “million of jobs are threatened”. But the question is ” as long as it does not happen in US, who cares?”.
My responses is globalisation enables China to become a global manufacturer, and India becomes a global office, we cannot escape from this wave or storm. If you advocate protectionist walls, everybody will follow suit. And we will be reduced to closed economy which could bring to global conflict as evidenced before WW2.
Maybe he wants to secure himself some dole after newspapers go bankrupt. Even fish don’t want to be wrapped in them any more.
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