Free Trade Agreements

"Free trade is the framework upon which American prosperity rests."

Free Trade Agreements: Heritage Foundation Recommendations | The Heritage Foundation

Protectionism: The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

"If the cheaper producers were home-grown, we'd call it competition and judge it a good thing. Is it any different, just because they happen to come from another country?"

Protectionism: the wolf in sheep's clothing

Economic Nonsense

"If Bernie Lange had taken to the airwaves to promote therapeutic magnetic underwear or report alien anal probes, he rightly would have been laughed off the station. But apparently peddling economic nonsense fits perfectly well with the editorial policies over at Channel 11 News, the local NBC affiliate."

Channel 11 piece peddles economic nonsense | GJFreePress.com

“No Nation Was Ever Ruined By Trade”

"Our politicians get it backwards: Trade creates jobs for Americans and everyone else."

“No Nation Was Ever Ruined By Trade” - Reason Magazine

Wealth Creation Explained in 32 Seconds

Through Trade, Millions Tap Into the Talents and Knowledge and Efforts of Each Other

"Thomas Thwaites, in his brilliant demonstration of the gargantuan complexity of the simplest toaster available today on the market, notes that the toaster that he bought as a guide for his project cost him 3 pounds, 94."

Through Trade, Millions Tap Into the Talents and Knowledge and Efforts of Each Other

Denis Dutton, Intellectual Entrepreneur

"Dutton’s genius lay not in his philosophy, but in his capacity to provoke intelligently. Look at him speaking at a TED conference last year, and you see not only a thinker, but also a charmer, a gentle bruiser, an ironist. Even more than an intellectual, he was an intellectual entrepreneur."

Denis Dutton,javascript:void(0) Intellectual Entrepreneur by Robert Cottrell | NYRBlog | The New York Review of Books

Trade Makes Us Less Likely to Kill

Michael Shermer writes in the Huffington Post:

"Trade makes us less likely to kill our potential trading partners. As Jared Diamond once told me about his research on Papua New Guinea hunter-gatherers: "Should you happen to meet an unfamiliar person in the forest, of course you try to kill him or else to run away. Our modern custom of just saying hello and starting a friendly chat would be suicidal." And yet something happened in the 1960s to bring about more peaceful interactions. Initially, peace was imposed upon the native New Guineans by fiat from the Western colonial government that ruled over the territory, but officials then insured continued peace by providing goods that the people needed, as well as the technologies to enable them to continue producing more resources on their own. In less than one generation, New Guinean hunter-gatherers who were fighting each other with stone tools were suddenly New Guinean consumer-traders operating computers, flying planes, and running their own small businesses. Where goods crossed New Guinea frontiers, New Guinea armies did not.

This is an example from my book of what I call Bastiat's Principle, from an observation by the 19th-century French economist Frédéric Bastiat: "Where goods do not cross frontiers, armies will." Although trade is not a sure-fire prophylactic against between-group conflict (there are exceptions to Thomas Friedman's observation that two countries with MacDonalds don't fight, but as a first order approximation it is accurate), it is an integral component to establishing trust between strangers that lessens the potential volatility that naturally exists whenever groups come into contact with one another, especially over the allocation of scare resources that have alternative uses, the very definition of economics.

And that brings us back full circle to trade, markets, and morality."

Free Trade and the Steel Industry, 1978

Dr. Milton Friedman gives a concise and lucid argument for international free trade at Utah State University in 1978.

Singapore: A Testament to Free Trade

The Discovery Channel is currently showing the "History of Singapore" on their HD Theater network. Among other things, the documentary shows how powerful freedom and free trade can be. Singapore, a small island (275 sq. miles) with no natural resources, has grown to become the 16th largest trading country in the world and 9th richest country in the world (GDP/capita).

If you can not catch in on HD Theater, you may watch the video online below.

Part One


Part Two


Part Three


Part Four


Part Five

Tire Threat

Pardon my ignorance, but I didn't go to Harvard.

Then again, you probably didn't, either.

So let's ask this question together: "What, exactly, is the threat to the country presented by Joe Sixpack buying cheap tires from China?"

Are we trying to make the United States tire-independent? Do we rely on too many foreign tires? Are we trying to close a tire-gap vital to national security?

The answers all point to one conclusion. The United States is imposing a 35% tax on Chinese tires for one reason and one reason only: to discourage Americans from buying cheap Chinese tires.

The Chinese are understandably miffed. They complain. So once again, we must witness the absurd comedy of Chinese communists lecturing the government of the United States on the importance of free trade.

Critics of the Chinese will no doubt argue that the Chinese aren't true believers in free trade, just political opportunists who want to use the rhetoric of free trade to sell their cheap products in our market.

To these critics any thinking man must respond, "Of course." Or, less politely, "Duh!" The beauty of free trade is that it turns self-interested human beings into other-interested human beings by appealing to their nearly ineradicable self-interest. How else could you possibly convince all those Chinese to make cheap tires for Joe Sixpack, a guy they will never meet and who lives in a place they will never visit?

The world only works as well as it does because so many people aim to satisfy themselves by satisfying the needs of others. When governments start trying to dam up and redirect the flow of mutually satisfying trade, they inject politics into private transactions, making trade policy a department of government located dangerously close to the department of defense.

Let's laugh about protecting America from cheap tires, and use ridicule to expose the nonsense of protectionism. We should also pray that this comedy does not turn into a tragedy. Trade wars have been known to start real ones.

The Quotable Bastiat

Supposez, si cela vous amuse, que l'étranger nous inonde de toutes sortes de marchandises utiles, sans nous rien demander; que nos importations sont infinies et nos exportations nulles, je vous défie de me prouver que nous en serons plus pauvres.

"Suppose, if that amuses you, that the foreigner inundates us with all sorts of useful goods, asking nothing in return; that our imports are infinite and our exports, nil; I defy you to prove to me that we should be poorer on that account."

Chapitre VI Sophismes Économiques/Chapter 6, Economic Sophisms

Nearly Everything is Made Nearly Everywhere

Another fabulous job by the folks at reason.tv. Bikinis and Boudreaux, a winning combination.

The U.A.W. Flexes Its Protectionist Muscle

Flush with his victory over the American taxpayer and GM bondholders, Ron Gettelfinger of the United Auto Workers makes it clear that he is going to use his growing political might to fight free trade.

A few of his telling comments:

“If they’re going to sell them here, they should build them here … Why wouldn’t they build them here as apposed to transporting them from the Far East?"

"This country needs an industrial policy."

“General Motors is on that road and we intend to make sure they stay down that path."

View the entire interview here:



The Wall Street Journal calls Gettelfinger's position what it really is, "raw trade protectionism."

Anger's Aweigh

Colbert says granting vigilantes the right to shoot pirates on the high seas is the free market at its best.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Anger's Aweigh
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Stopping Trade Makes Things Worse

As the pace of global trade slows, a new generation of protectionists emerge. Protectionism is not just inefficient; it is dangerous. This video from the Atlas Economic Research Foundation tells the story well.

You can sign a petition for free trade at Freedom to Trade.

Rehabilitating Smoot Hawley

Uh oh. The New York Times has allocated some of its precious space to an economist trying to rehabilitate the Smoot Hawley Tariff Act.

"The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act got a bad rap in the Great Depression, an economist argues. Temporary protectionism can be a good thing, he says, giving businesses and workforces time to adjust to downturns."

When intellectuals provide the cover for populist politicians, can more trouble be far behind?

Conservatory of the Human Spirit

A Czech warns the United States that it is making the same mistakes Europe made in the 1930s, and warns us that we are on "the road to hell."

Chinese Communists ask uncomfortable questions about the claims-paying ability of the United States, and hint that they may move away from the dollar as a reserve currency because of reckless US government spending.

The Mexican government lectures the United States on free trade and international law.

The United States was once the unquestioned world leader in individual liberty, limited government, sound money, private property, the rule of law, and free trade.

Now, it takes the rest of the world to remind us of our historic guiding values, and to warn us of the dangers that lie down any other path.

At least it is encouraging to find these values expressed in places far and wide. These values are the conservatory of the human spirit. So long as they exist somewhere, there is hope. 

How We Get What We Want

In this video, students ask New Yorkers to talk about free trade. Out of the mouth of babes...

Not a Curse

"It is through exchange that difference becomes a blessing, not a curse."

Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of Great Britain

Nominated for "Sentence of the Year" at Marginal Revolution.