All Posts Tagged With: "international trade"
A Deficit of Understanding
“Nothing, however, can be more absurd than this whole doctrine of the balance of trade.” —Adam Smith The Wealth of Nations Here’s some sound advice: don’t worry about the trade deficit. The pundits’ and politicians’ hysteria over the trade deficit is rooted in confusion. The fact is, a trade deficit is unlikely to be a [...]
1Apr2004 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 6 comments | ContinuedBook Reviews – March 2004
Economics as Ideology: Keynes, Laski, Hayek, and the Creation of Contemporary Politics by Kenneth R. Hoover Rowman and Littlefield • 2003 • 328 pages • $75.00 hardcover; $27.95 paperback Reviewed by Richard M. Ebeling Why do people hold the views that they do, including and especially their political and ideological views? That question has generated [...]
1Mar2004 | FEE Admin | 0 comments | ContinuedLet Us Not Speak Falsely Now
One of the most difficult issues facing those arguing for a free society is the bias built into the way we speak. When the very words people use create a prejudice in favor of government intervention, supporters of freedom must first alert their audience to this pernicious influence, and only then can the argument about [...]
1Mar2004 | Gene Callahan | 1 comment | ContinuedBook Reviews – December 2003
Stalin’s Other War: Soviet Grand Strategy, 1939–1941 by Albert L. Weeks Rowman & Littlefield • 2002 • 201 pages • $60 hardcover; 24.95 paperback Reviewed by Richard M. Ebeling For most of the period since the end of World War II the general interpretation about the role of the Soviet Union in the events leading up to the beginning of [...]
1Dec2003 | FEE Admin | 0 comments | ContinuedFree-Market Miracle: From Sri Lanka to Wal-Mart
Ralph Hood is a writer in Huntsville, Alabama. Having spent much of my adulthood in the aviation industry, I belong to the Greater Northern Alabama Lying Pilots’ Coffee Drinking and Tale Telling Society. We meet erratically and unreliably, solely for our own entertainment. One member, Don Langford, flies freight all over the world in huge [...]
1Jan2003 | Ralph Hood | 0 comments | ContinuedAirline Protectionism Hurts Travelers
In one form or another the U.S. government has regulated the domestic airline industry since 1930. The imposition of various rules and regulations has kept the industry from becoming as efficient as it might have become had it evolved in a free market. While many controls ended in 1978 and the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) [...]
1Oct2002 | Paul A. Cleveland | 1 comment | ContinuedSovereign Traders
Pierre Lemieux is an economist and visiting professor at the University of Quebec at Hull. The third Summit of the Americas, held in Quebec City (Canada) in April, was attended by 34 heads of state (or prime ministers) representing all North and South American countries except Cuba. It also attracted some 45,000 demonstrators against Free [...]
1Sep2001 | Pierre Lemieux | 3 comments | ContinuedThe A Word
I confess to having deep sympathies for anarchism. I hold open the possibility and the hope that a prosperous and peaceful society can flourish without the state. Unfortunately, the word “anarchy” has an offensive connotation. Anarchy is commonly understood to mean “lawlessness.” And lawlessness truly is offensive. A lawless society has no rules to govern [...]
1Jul2001 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 5 comments | ContinuedDon’t Be Framed
Experimental psychologists teach the importance of “issue framing.” The details of how a problem is presented to someone—how a problem is framed—often affect his response to it. Human brains aren’t fleshy versions of silicon microprocessors; we are not general-purpose calculating machines. Rather, our brains evolved over countless generations to deal effectively with those specific problems [...]
1May2001 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 1 comment | ContinuedFree Trade Versus Protectionism: A Source Book of Essays and Readings
This is a book that operates on several levels and succeeds, to a greater or lesser degree, on all of them. Centrally, it is a history of economic thought in the form of extracts and short essays by the prominent advocates of free trade and protectionism, extending from mercantilist times to the present. Thus the [...]
1Aug2000 | James Rolph Edwards | 0 comments | ContinuedEconomic Freedom or Foreign Aid?
In a world of plenty want abounds. To blame are big corporations, international trade, and open markets, according to demonstrators who have been attacking the World Trade Organization. In fact, they couldn’t get it more wrong. Economic liberty and exchange offer the world’s poor the best hope of a better future.
1Jul2000 | Doug Bandow | 0 comments | ContinuedTrade and the Rise of Freedom
Thomas DiLorenzo is professor of economics at Loyola College in Maryland. This is adapted from a paper presented at the Ludwig von Mises Institute’s conference on “’The History of Liberty” at Auburn University, January 29, 2000. It is no exaggeration to say that trade is the keystone of modern civilization. As Murray Rothbard wrote, “The [...]
1Jun2000 | Thomas J. DiLorenzo | 2 comments | ContinuedFree Trade and Flexible Markets
Christopher Mayer, a commercial loan officer, is studying for his MBA at the University of Maryland. International trade plays a critical and often overlooked role in the prosperity of the world’s economy. Imprudence on the part of governments can stifle growth and trigger painful unnecessary contractions. The Smoot-Hawley tariff of 1930 was a major cause [...]
1Apr2000 | Christopher Mayer | 0 comments | ContinuedAmerican Culture
Among free trade’s most vocal opponents are those who insist that American culture is hegemonic—that without protectionism, people around the world will mindlessly adopt bland, boring, and monochrome American culture. Put aside the breathtaking arrogance of those who yearn to use the state to prevent people from spending money in ways that elites think are [...]
1Apr2000 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 0 comments | ContinuedPolitics and Foreign Trade
The case for free trade is overwhelming, both theoretically and empirically. My last two columns developed the theoretical case, which is based on the concepts of opportunity costs and comparative advantage. Even if the people of a country have an absolute advantage in producing everything, they still gain from foreign trade because they cannot have [...]
1Dec1999 | Dwight R. Lee | 0 comments | ContinuedFist of Steel
Dale DeBoer is an assistant professor of economics at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. Last year was bad for U.S. steel producers. Imports jumped to historic highs, and domestic prices fell. Corporate steel profits collapsed, and almost six percent of steelworkers lost their jobs. Crying foul, steel producers appealed for relief under U.S. international [...]
1Nov1999 | Dale | 1 comment | ContinuedComparative Advantage Continued
The concept of comparative advantage, which I began discussing last month, is a straightforward application of opportunity cost and is almost embarrassingly simple. Certainly people have no trouble understanding and recognizing the importance of this concept in their own personal lives.
1Nov1999 | Dwight R. Lee | 0 comments | Continued-
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