Free Trade & Trade Policy

Is Free Trade Obsolete? Part 1

by Sheldon Richman April 1, 2004

Part 1 | Part 2 In the last several decades, areas of the developing world, particularly Asia, have become politically more stable and free, more open to foreign investment. The populations there are better educated and have access to modern technology, including the Internet. They are thus more productive. This sounds like something to be welcomed, not only in a ...

We Need Real Free Trade Now

by Sheldon Richman February 4, 2004

People in parts of the developing world are becoming more free, better educated, and increasingly dexterous with modern communications, such as the Internet. As a result, they are more vigorously participating in the world economy. They are in a position to make things and do things for us ...

The Deerslayer, the Bootmaker, and the Violin Player, Part 2

by Scott McPherson October 1, 2003

Part 1 | Part 2 The months went by, and winter’s long nights held a hint of spring and summer to come. The snow had stopped falling, and turned to water in the occasional sunlight that poked through the breaking clouds. The Deerslayer and the Bootmaker could often be found sitting on the porch watching the drops fall from ...

Trade Restrictions Show Hypocrisy

by Sheldon Richman September 12, 2003

A lesson in government hypocrisy — as if one were needed these days — is to be found in the agricultural policies of the rich nations of the world, including the United States. The U.S. government incessantly proclaims its desire to help the world’s poor. Empty words. Sure, the ...

The Deerslayer, the Bootmaker, and the Violin Player, Part 1

by Scott McPherson September 1, 2003

Part 1 | Part 2 Once there lived a man called “The Deerslayer.” The Deerslayer lived in the plush green valley of a rugged mountain range and survived through his cunning and skillful use of a rifle to hunt game. His mountain valley home was far to the north; he saw only a few short months of warm weather ...

A Rare Moment of Candor

by Sheldon Richman November 9, 2002

President Bush says he’s got the economy under control. That’s supposed to comfort us. I’d feel better if he said he had the federal government under control. It’s spending wildly — and it can’t blame the “war on terrorism” for it all. That’s just the latest spending. ...

The Real Solution to Business Misconduct

by Sheldon Richman August 20, 2002

The way people talk about the need for new regulation of business, you’d think it was 1930. Have we not already lived through the New Deal with its pervasive regulation of corporations? Have we not lived through the regulatory explosions of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s? Are not the transgressions ...

Leave Sam and Martha Alone

by Sheldon Richman August 12, 2002

One of the latest “business scandals” involves alleged insider trading by people close to Samuel Waksal, the founder of the drug company ImClone Systems and its recently resigned CEO. The government says Waksal told family members and friend Martha Stewart that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was about to ...

The Solution to Poverty

by Jacob G. Hornberger August 1, 2002

I have great news for you! According to today’s Washington Post (March 22), world leaders meeting at a U.N. conference in Monterrey, Mexico, have come up with a new plan for ridding the world of poverty. The plan involves the U.S. government’s sending of foreign aid to the governments of Third ...

Farmers Should Oppose Socialism

by Scott McPherson July 1, 2002

The Brownsville, Tennessee, offices of the Department of Agriculture were the scene of a recent five-day sit-in by black farmers who claim that government loan applications are being stalled by a racist system. Instead of complaining about racism, though, they should be complaining about socialism. Over the last 70 years, ...

When Will the Catastrophists Learn?

by Sheldon Richman July 1, 2002

The doomsayers never give up. Whats more, they are an ever-moving target. Refute one of their claims of catastrophe, and they are back with another before you can say, “The future is bright.” Sometimes even the good news is bad. The global catastrophists, such a Paul Ehrlich, used to say, “The ...

The World’s Poor Lose a Friend

by Sheldon Richman June 1, 2002

On May 2 the best friend of the world’s poor died at home in London. Peter Bauer was 86 and had just been named winner of the first Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty, awarded by the Cato Institute. Never heard of Peter Bauer? That’s because his analysis of poverty ...