All Posts Tagged With: "protectionism"
The Fear of Free Trade
It’s hard to think of an issue that is more polarized than the one between free traders and protectionists. Those of us who favor free trade believe in the ethical principle that people should be free to buy from whomever they choose, and in the economic truth that wealth and efficiency increase as prices fall. [...]
1Dec2007 | Mark W. Hendrickson | 1 comment | ContinuedWe Have Enough Globalization?
Jude Blanchette is a freelance writer living in Shanghai. The debate over free trade is, and has been for over 200 years, quite contentious. In reading over the historical debates, it often seems as if no ground has been made by the advocates of a global, borderless economy. Indeed, this is what makes reading Adam [...]
1Jun2007 | Jude Blanchette | 0 comments | ContinuedLost Articles
The Constitution says that to be elected to the U.S. Senate, a person has to be 30 or older, a citizen for at least nine years, and a resident of the state from which the candidate is elected. Alas, it says nothing about knowing American history. Good thing for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). He’d have [...]
1Jun2007 | Sheldon Richman | 6 comments | ContinuedA Sennholz Sampler
Editor’s Note: Hans Sennholz, a former president and trustee of FEE and long-time chairman of the economics department at Grove City College, died in June at age 85. We honor his memory with three of the many articles he contributed over the years. “Jobs and Trade,” July 1996 Unemployment is the great puzzle of our [...]
1Jun2007 | Hans F. Sennholz | 0 comments | ContinuedTrade and Diversity
Trade is one of the oldest of human institutions, and trading relationships are among the most fundamental of all human relationships. Indeed, we may say that networks of peaceful exchange form the skeleton of all complex human societies. One of the most striking features of trade throughout human history is how it connects people who [...]
1May2007 | Stephen Davies | 2 comments | ContinuedAdam Smith in China
James Dorn is a China specialist at the Cato Institute and professor of economics at Towson University in Maryland. A shorter version of this article first appeared in the Times of India, January 24, 2007. China’s transition from plan to market since 1978 has not only increased prosperity but also has led to a new [...]
1May2007 | James A. Dorn | 2 comments | ContinuedCan We Tell Those Huddled Masses to Scram? Immigration and the Constitution
In 1873 some Presbyterians in Kentucky invited a young Canadian to be their pastor. Tensions in the border state were still high following the War of Southern Independence, and the congregants hoped that a neutral outsider could pacify folks not only within their own church but even across denominations. Rev. A.B. Simpson succeeded so well [...]
1Nov2006 | Becky Akers | 27 comments | ContinuedThe End Run to Freedom
What does the future hold for economic life in the United States? Will we move toward greater freedom or less? What role will ideas and rhetoric play, if any, in making sure that the direction is one that lovers of freedom prefer?
1Jun2006 | Russell Roberts | 0 comments | ContinuedMencken’s Wisdom
Donald Boudreaux (dboudrea@gmu.edu) is chairman of the economics department at George Mason University. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the death of H. L. Mencken (1880–1956). I wish that this Bard of Baltimore had lived far longer—past the age of Methuselah—so that those of us born after World War II could have enjoyed his [...]
1Jun2006 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 2 comments | Continued“The Tariff is the Mother of Trusts”
Why should we expect business people to favor laissez faire and to abhor government intervention? Few people outside of business do so.
1Jun2006 | Sheldon Richman | 4 comments | ContinuedInstitutions and Development: The Case of China
James Dorn (jdorn@cato.org) is a China specialist and vice president for academic affairs at the Cato Institute. He is coeditor of China’s Future: Constructive Partner or Emerging Threat? (Cato Institute, 2000). An earlier version of this article appeared in Vital Speeches of the Day (November 15, 2005). From a liberal perspective the goal of economic [...]
1Jun2006 | James A. Dorn | 0 comments | ContinuedFree Trade: History and Perception
In the natural sciences, such as physics, there is a large number of statements that can be made about the world that command general assent from scientists and those with a scientific education. This is not true to anything like the same degree in the human and social sciences, such as economics and history. The [...]
1Mar2006 | Stephen Davies | 1 comment | ContinuedPresumptuous Protectionism
If someone gets caught selling somebody elses property,
he goes to jail.What may be legally bought and
sold in the market is limited to legitimate private
property acquired by ones own effort or through voluntary
exchange with others. Since legal transactions are
settled accounts, what is traded belongs to neither the
government nor the community. It is private property,
and as such the owner can dispose of it at his sole discretion,
limited only by other peoples
rights. Correct?
U.S.-China Relations after CNOOC
When the China hawks in Congress joined
forces last summer with protectionists, a
strong (and dangerous) coalition formed to
effectively end any hopes that CNOOC Ltd., a subsidiary
of the state-owned China National Offshore Oil
Company, would succeed in its bid to acquire Unocal.
Pharmacists and Freedom
According to the newspapers, pharmacists throughout the United States are refusing to fill prescriptions for the “morning-after” pill and other contraceptives because of religious objections. This has caused some concern and has prompted at least one governor to intervene. Last spring Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich issued an emergency order requiring pharmacies to honor all prescriptions. [...]
1Jul2005 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Unconstitutionality of Protectionism
Even the staunchest free trader might reluctantly concede that the apparatus of protectionism—tariffs, import quotas, and anti-dumping duties—is constitutional because clause 3 of Article I, Section 8, of the U.S. Constitution delegates to Congress “power . . . to regulate commerce with foreign nations. . . .” Before we make too hasty a concession, however, [...]
1Apr2005 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Great Outsourcing Scare of 2004
Last year a protectionist wind filled the air. All the good jobs, Americans were told, were disappearing faster than one could say “New Delhi.” On opening his local newspaper, the typical American would find articles alerting, “As job exports rise, some economists rethink the mathematics of free trade.” Or: “Thomson Trims 1,535 Jobs by Shifting [...]
1Mar2005 | Jude Blanchette | 3 comments | Continued-
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