Free trade weathered well in the global financial crisis
18 Jul 2014 Leave a comment
in global financial crisis (GFC), international economic law Tags: free trade, global financial crisis
Adam Smith on growing grapes in Scotland
27 May 2014 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, industrial organisation Tags: Adam Smith, free trade, industry policy, protectionism
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By means of glasses, hotbeds, and hotwalls, very good grapes can be raised in Scotland, and very good wine too can be made of them at about thirty times the expense for which at least equally good can be brought from foreign countries. Would it be a reasonable law to prohibit the importation of all foreign wines, merely to encourage the making of claret and burgundy in Scotland? …As long as the one country has those advantages, and the other wants [lacks] them, it will always be more advantageous for the latter, rather to buy of the former than to make. |
Foreigners Are Our Friends | Bryan Caplan | Learn Liberty – YouTube
23 May 2014 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economic growth, economics, international economics, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: anti-foreign bias, Bryan Caplan, free trade, protectionism
Trade is a powerful force for peace in the Ukraine
18 Mar 2014 Leave a comment
in liberalism, Public Choice, war and peace Tags: free trade, Putin, Richard Cobden, Russian gas pipelines, Ukraine
Russian TV is starting to spin a Putin back-down in the Ukraine. Channel surfing, I came cross a Russian TV story alluding to Russians that the revenues from the Russian gas pipelines across the Ukraine to the EU are a major lifeline of the Russian economy.
The mere threat of repeated sabotage of these gas pipelines to Western Europe are an easy way to hurt Russia if it overplays its hand. That was the round-about topic of the TV story.
Trade was a powerful force for peace and is a defence against war, as the great Manchester liberal Richard Cobden championed in mid-19th century.
Both Russia and China have much more to lose and much less to gain from war because of their extensive trade links with their neighbours and their former Cold War rivals, including with each other. China’s extensive trade and investment links with Taiwan are the best guarantee of peace between them.
As Joseph Schumpeter observed, when free trade prevails, “no class” gains from forcible expansion: “foreign raw materials and food stuffs are as accessible to each nation as though they were in its own territory”. Patrick McDonald recently called free trade the invisible hand of peace.
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