Free Trade & Trade Policy

The Consumer Is Boss

by Sheldon Richman May 18, 2005

The morning paper brings two pieces of news about Wal-Mart. The first tells of an effort by politicians and so-called community groups to pressure the retail chain to raise its wages. The second describes Wal-Mart’s plans to meet competition from Target and other stores by including products that ...

Tear Down the Trade Walls

by Sheldon Richman April 22, 2005

“Please tear down this wall,” the president said. No, it wasn’t President Reagan challenging Soviet President Gorbachev about the Berlin Wall in the 1980s. It was the Ukrainian president, Viktor Yushchenko, recently addressing a joint session of the U.S. Congress. Yushchenko was asking the senators and representatives to ...

“Buy American” Hurts Americans

by Sheldon Richman December 29, 2004

President Bush has a plan to address the so-called trade deficit, which worries people so much. According to the wire services, Bush said, “People can buy more United States products if they’re worried about the trade deficit.” That will appeal to many Americans in a nationalistic fever. What could ...

Limits on Chinese Imports Harm Low-Income Americans

by Sheldon Richman December 22, 2004

President Bush has a nice little Christmas present for every family struggling to make ends meet: he announced the other day that he will make clothing more expensive in the coming year by imposing limits on cheap imports from China. This little favor to American textile and apparel interests ...

Bra Wars

by James Bovard November 1, 2004

President Bush continually scapegoats foreigners for his decisions to pilfer Americans. While Bush loves to praise free trade, in reality, “free trade” is whatever George Bush says it is. For Bush, like other recent presidents, “fairness” is the magic word to sanctify whatever trade restrictions he imposes. In his speeches, President Bush ...

Revisiting the Wal-Mart Battlefield: A Reply to Critics

by George Leef September 22, 2004

In a previous posting on the FFF site, I argued that the campaign of demonization against Wal-Mart was silly. As expected, a number of people emailed me to tell me off. I think it’s worth another posting to examine the anti–Wal-Mart arguments made by those writers.

Examining Reagan’s Record on Free Trade

by Sheldon Richman June 21, 2004

The following article originally appeared in the May 10, 1982, issue of The Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones and Company, Inc. Reprinted by permission. Hardly anyone was surprised when the Reagan administration imposed quotas on sugar imports last week. This is at once remarkable and understandable. It’s remarkable because Mr. Reagan wants to be known as a free-trader. Indeed, ...

Is Free Trade Obsolete? Part 2

by Sheldon Richman May 1, 2004

Part 1 | Part 2 Is it time to throw out all the textbooks that defend free trade? Some people — including one former free trader — think so. Last month we saw how Ricardo’s law of comparative advantage, operating through the price system and the phenomenon of opportunity cost, induces people and groups to specialize in the production of ...

Wal-Mart as a “Wedge Issue”

by George Leef April 9, 2004

The major political parties thrive on what are known as “wedge issues.” A wedge issue is one that takes advantage of the fact that many voters are motivated far more by emotion than by reason. It works at the gut level, driving people into anger first, and then into the voting booth, even though, when ...

The Keys to Economic Development:

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 9, 2004

VIDEO: The Keys to Economic Development Dear FFF Supporters, I just returned from Porto Alegre, Brazil, where I delivered a speech entitled “The Keys to Economic Development” to a conference sponsored by the Institute of Entrepreneurial Studies, one of the most prestigious free-market ...

Outsourcing Is a Natural Force in the Free Market

by Jeffrey A. Singer April 5, 2004

The other day, while performing an emergency operation on a patient with a bleeding ulcer, it occurred to me that surgeons don’t see many ulcer patients these days. Back in the 1970s and early 80s I would operate for ulcer disease every week or so. But with the advent of new ...

Ignoring the Fear-Mongering about Outsourcing

by Sheldon Richman April 5, 2004

From the way some people talk in this political season, you’d think all the good jobs are being shipped to India, leaving nothing for Americans to do but flip hamburgers and shine shoes. Don’t expect to hear sensible talk about economics in an election year. It doesn’t fit into ...