This is an excellent post by Brad DeLong, explaining why free trade can only be good, and explaining why we should not worry that all our jobs and income will shift overseas. As the interesting discussion that follows the post makes clear, it is important to distinguish comparative from absolute advantage to understand why we all benefit from free trade. Paul Samuelson once said that the theory of comparative advantage is the only proposition in economics which is "both true and non-trivial".
2 responses to “The myth of national competitiveness”
Let Us Raise the Pie Higher! Comparative Advantage
What I was trying to do in my post was to challenge the conventional economics orthodoxy which pervades much of the elite media and elite Washington as well that, as one blogger put it, “free trade can only be good.” That’s an odd s…
Crazed Loons Come Out of the Woodwork.
It only takes a few mild comments on the benefits of free trade, the value of reducing distortions, for the crazed loons to appear howling about the evils of free trade. Alex Singleton is asked by Newsnig8t for his views