Donald Trump is pushing ahead with his protectionist agenda, and possibly with good reason. There were over 17 million manufacturing jobs in the US in 2000, in the 10 years that followed, China joined the WTO and the US lost about a third of those jobs. In this edition of the Debunking Economics podcast Phil Dobbie asks Steve Keen whether protectionism is valid in this day and age. What of the conventional philosophy that trying to do everything locally avoids economies of scale and pushes prices up for everyone? Steve’s argument, you need a complex economy to produce efficiency and innovation. It’s the lack of protectionism that has stymied growth in many economies. But there are exceptions, especially for an Elon Musk fan boy like Steve!
Economics
UK University Strike – What it’s about
Economics
Richard Vague – A Brief History of Doom
This is a superb history of economic crises since the early 1800s till today, focusing on the issue we agree is the fundamental cause of such crises: a boom and then bust in private debt. […]
Economics
Anat Admati – Financial Regulation Shouldn’t Be Hard—Here’s What We Need to Make It Work
We can land planes safely at crowded airports, yet we can’t manage to make our financial system safe. Why?
Paradox is proponents of free trade still hang onto the notion that their respective countries should have positive trade balances with everyone else – impossible. Throughout Britain’s domination of world trade in 19th century it had a negative trade balance.