by Dan Mitchell | Feb 23, 2020 | Blogs, Economics, Trade
Early last year, I shared a video explaining that trade deficits generally don’t matter. I even suggested trade deficits might be a sign of economic strength because foreigners who earned dollars were anxious to invest them in the American economy. I’m recycling this...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 2, 2020 | Blogs, Economics, Trade
At the beginning of the Trump era, many of us (including me) warned that his statements on trade were nonsensical. And when Trump shifted from bad rhetoric to bad policy, Johan Norberg pointed out why trade wars are very misguided. As you might expect, Johan is...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 16, 2019 | Blogs, Trade
One of my big 2018 worries was that Trump would wreck NAFTA. We dodged that bullet, but my two cents is that the new deal is underwhelming. The bottom line is that his revisions to the pact – which is now called USMCA – create some new barriers to trade. But there...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 13, 2019 | Blogs, Trade
Because of Trump’s poor grasp of trade issues, I warned at the end of July that trade negotiations with China might yield “something gimmicky (like purchasing X tons of soybeans or importing Y number of cars).” Well, Trump announced an agreement yesterday and I can...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 8, 2019 | Blogs, Trade
Earlier this year, I shared a short video about the benefits of the World Trade Organization. Here’s a more substantive version (though still only four minutes). I wanted to keep the video short, so I focused primarily on how the United States disproportionately...
