Globalization and its Discontents

Protectionism is the most transparently stupid political rhetoric you will hear coming from the presidential campaigns this year, but it is difficult to explain quickly and succinctly why to a layperson. Besides being bombarded by anti-business and anti-globalization propoganda every day, the average voter is assailed by protectionist nonsense from both sides of the aisle. The parties are equal in their economic ignorance, they just disagree on what industries they would like to cripple. Two economists at the Fed branch in Dallas have written a informative, lucid summary of one of the many reasons globalization will help poor people more than a hundred unions or farm subsidy conglomerates put together. It was in the NYT this morning, check it out here. Those numbers and graphs in the article should pop into your head every time you hear Huckabee or some other politician ignorant of how the economy works prattle on about how egalitarian the "fair" tax is . . .