Until the last few minutes of last night’s debate, Donald Trump had been the only candidate to talk about trade policy during the debates. At the first presidential debate, [Hillary] Clinton studiously avoided the topic even as Trump used Clinton’s past support for NAFTA and her flip-flop on the TPP to blame her for all […]
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump visited Mexico yesterday and met with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. In a press briefing after the meeting, Trump spoke about immigration and trade in a much more civil tone than he typically uses on the campaign trail. Trump’s remarks about trade and NAFTA were especially interesting. NAFTA is a […]
It’s frequently said that the 2003 tax cuts were the high-water mark of the George W. Bush years. Rate cuts on income and capital gains lowered the penalty placed on work in concert with reduced penalties on the investment that creates new companies and jobs. Bush did well there, and considering the happy reality that […]
One of the biggest policy victories for the United States—and, indeed, for the world—over the last 60 years has been on international trade. Both the United States, which was relatively protectionist in the first half of the twentieth century, and most other countries have steadily reduced trade restrictions. And the blossoming of freer trade has […]
Today’s presidential candidates are playing recklessly with free trade, alliances and immigration. They are pushing the misguided notion that high trade barriers will restore jobs and prosperity to the middle class, and scorning old alliances and new immigrants. These protectionist and nativist ideas aren’t new; they’re as old as the Greeks. Athens tried them but […]