A Case for Free Trade

[Tom Palven]

TransPacific Trade Pact (TTP) explained?

According to John Walsh, the TTP trade agreement that President Trump rejected with a stroke of the pen wasn't about free trade as advertised, but was a provocative neocon plan to isolate and weaken China, which was excluded from the 12-nation pact.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2017/01/...h/djt-tpp-rip/

[Tom Palven]

US Treasury Dept. meddling with free trade and foreign affairs:
http://news.antiwar.com/2017/04/21/u...oil-in-russia/

Just another nail in the coffin of The Empire?

Probably not fake news. Hard to make this kind of thing up.

[Michael]

Originally Posted by Tom Palven

TransPacific Trade Pact (TTP) explained?

According to John Walsh, the TTP trade agreement that President Trump rejected with a stroke of the pen wasn't about free trade as advertised, but was a provocative neocon plan to isolate and weaken China, which was excluded from the 12-nation pact.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2017/01/...h/djt-tpp-rip/

That particular viewpoint was laid out six months ago when the Democrats rallied to oppose TPP. It would seem this John Walsh fellow is just cribbing this argument from some others.

[Tom Palven]

In their classic work, The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy, 1962, p. 250, James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock stated that:

"...the simple fact is, of course, that in normal trade all parties gain; there exist mutual gains from trade. The great contribution of Adam Smith lay in his popularization of this simple point..."

And yet, Trump is now promoting protectionism.

It should be pointed out that many economists believe that the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 exacerbated what may have been a typical blip in the business cycle and help promote The Great Depression.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Smo...ley-Tariff-Act

[Michael]

Originally Posted by Tom Palven

And yet, Trump is now promoting protectionism.

It is hard to offer any meaningful criticism of any of Trump's enacted policy positions for the simple reason that Trump doesn't have a clue what he's doing.

The US is on the losing end of every one of Trump's trade-wars. These are 'self-inflicted wounds' to the US economy.

Trump's silly trade war is projected to cost the average American household approximately $500 for 2019 alone - slightly higher for 2020.

Trump is moron. How the American people elected this idiot as president is beyond me.