Trade

Archive for Trade

Scott Sumner, Trade Deficits, and Dark Matter

Scott Sumner at EconLog pounced at the red meat I waved in front of him. (I had sent him Trump’s ludicrous tweet on trade wars.) One of Scott’s points was very interesting, and I want to make sure readers understand the claim. Specifically, Scott wrote, “4. Most people assume that the US runs a persistent […]

Currency Devaluation, Export Advantage, and Commodity Prices

I am mostly doing this as a placeholder. I wrote this article for Mises back in late 2010. A lot of it is standard stuff, but I got into the step-by-step adjustment to a currency devaluation, showing the sense in which it would shower benefits on certain groups. I vaguely remember that it took me […]

I Push Back Against the Anti-Mercantilists

Don’t worry kids, I’m not angling for a spot in the Trump Administration. But lately I’ve been uncomfortable with some of the standard rhetoric “my side” puts out, regarding free trade and in particular in their critiques of mercantilism. From p. 279 of Larry White’s (excellent) book The Clash of Economic Ideas, we have this quote […]

Wealth vs. Annual Output: It Depends on the Context to Know Which One Free Market Economists Support

Recently with the endorsements of the claim that hurricanes might be “good for the economy,” free market economists took to the airwaves to explain that this “broken window fallacy” foolishly focuses on the flow of output, while ignoring the stock of wealth. In other words, just because a natural disaster might boost official GDP, that […]

Explaining Current and Capital Accounts to Scott Sumner

(If that title sounds hostile and/or presumptuous, it’s only because I sat here for about 3 minutes trying to think of something funny.) Over at TheMoneyIllusion, Scott first quotes from a news story: The National Association of Realtors released a report Tuesday that said foreign buyers and recent immigrants spent an estimated $153 billion on […]

Another Slight Correction to a Boudreaux Anti-Tariff Argument

In my never-ending quest to get everything perfect, I once again must quibble with one of Don Boudreaux’s free trade (or anti-tariff) arguments. Now for context, Don publishes three of these a day, so the fact that I object once a month means I endorse just about everything the guy writes… Anyway, here’s Don’s piece […]

The Specific Inefficiency Emanating From the Export-Import Bank

In response to one of his critics–who said Don was being naive for ignoring the reality of the “trade war” the US has with China–Don Boudreaux wrote the following: With respect, what you (and many others) call a trade war is quite the opposite of war. It’s peaceful trade. And through such trade we Americans […]

A Huge Problem (?) in Martin Feldstein Et Al.’s Argument for Border Adjustment Tax

It’s not all karaoke and Krugman bashing around here. Sometimes I roll up my sleeves and do straight econ… Some of the rank-and-file Republicans pushing the border adjustment tax (BAT) are doing so on explicitly protectionist grounds. (If you don’t know, the BAT would tax imports at 20% and exempt exports, implicitly subsidizing them 20%.) […]