The FTAA is Dead Two developments this week lead me to that conclusion. First, as this story describes, the framework agreed to in Miami this week was a shadow of the original intent, since it allows individual countries to pick and choose which parts of the FTAA they want to sign on to. So, for […]

Borrowing and the Business Cycle Since I’m in a data groove today, I thought I’d put up a picture showing why I worry about whether the current economic recovery is sustainable. You can read about some of the details of my concerns in this earlier post, but here’s a graph to go with it. The […]

Trade and Income Growth: some data I’d like to finish up our discussion about international trade by presenting some data. There have been lots of comments in our discussion that have involved assertions regarding trade, income, and employment. I thought I’d provide a couple of graphs to help give some meat to your arguments. The […]

In Case You Weren’t Sure … … what Campaign 2004 will look like, the RNC is starting it’s first ads: With somber strings playing in the background, the commercial flashes the words “Strong and Principled Leadership” before cutting to Mr. Bush standing before members of Congress. Intended to call out the Democrats for their opposition […]

Hooverism in the Modern Era Bush is getting closer and closer to the Hoover Trifecta: 1. Presiding over a net loss of jobs? Check. 2. Stock market crash? Check. 3. Global trade war leading to a Great Depression? (Instigated, or at least exacerbated by Hoover’s signing of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930) Based on […]

…But Pro-Trade Forces are Mustering Against Bush From the NYTimes: Greenspan Warns Against ‘Creeping Protectionism’ in Trade In an apparent criticism of the Bush administration, Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve’s chairman, said today that it was “imperative” that the “creeping protectionism” in the nation’s trade policy be reversed. Mr. Greenspan “is getting right in the […]

George Bush, Anti-Trade Protectionist… This week, Bush has: – suggested that he will not lift the steel tariffs that were declared illegal by the WTO – undermined efforts for a substantive FTAA deal, by moving toward bilateral trade negotiations – applied new tariffs to imports of textiles from China, at the risk of starting a […]

Free Trade, Jobs, and Choosing Reading the comments to Kash’s last post, and reading articles like this one in the Houston Chronicle, it’s clear that concern over lost jobs is the major reason for most anti-trade sentiment. However, free trade opponents need to understand that protecting jobs by restricting trade also costs jobs. The recent […]

Trade with China as Technological Revolution There have been some thought provoking comments recently about the US’s trade with China, and we haven’t had a good trade debate on here in a few months, so I thought I’d open up a thread to discuss it more fully. Let me first stick out my pro-trade neck […]

The Resumption of The Big Dollar Slide? The US dollar hit a record low against the euro today, of about .83 €/$. It’s been trending down for the last year and a half, so that’s not that surprising. But listen to what currency traders were saying today: Traders cited two factors behind the dollar’s fall. […]