by Dan Mitchell | Aug 30, 2024 | Blogs, Economics, Trade
Frederic Bastiat, the great French economist from the 1800s, explained that a good economist looks at both direct effects and indirect effects of government policies. Here are a few examples. If tax rates are increased, a good economist will look at the...
by Dan Mitchell | Jun 18, 2024 | Blogs, Trade
Six years ago, I wrote a column explaining why America’s growth in the 1800s was not because of punitive trade taxes. Let’s look at that issue again, starting with this video from Johan Norberg. I’m motivated to revisit the topic because Trump recently...
by Dan Mitchell | Jun 8, 2024 | Blogs, Trade
In 2019, the Center for Freedom and Prosperity released this video documenting the benefits of free trade. The case for free trade between nations is the same as the case for free trade between states. Or between cities. Or between households. Economists...
by Dan Mitchell | May 15, 2024 | Blogs, Trade
Today’s column is about international trade, but I’m not going to regurgitate my usual arguments about the benefits of free trade or get wonky about creative destruction. Instead, I’m going to make a point about the glib, hypocritical,...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 17, 2024 | Blogs, Economics, Trade
Five years ago, I shared this video explaining why trade deficits generally don’t matter. The most important thing to understand is that a trade deficit is the same thing as a financial account surplus (formerly known as a capital surplus), which is easy to...
