Sunday, September 12, 2010

America Was Founded As a Protectionist Nation
Trade Policy item by Guest: Ian Fletcher

Contemporary American politics is conducted in the shadow of historical myths that inform our present-day choices.  Unfortunately, these myths sometimes lead us terribly astray.  Case in point is the popular idea that America’s economic tradition has been economic liberty, laissez faire, and wide-open cowboy capitalism.  This notion sounds obvious, and it fits the image of this country held by both the Right, which celebrates this tradition, and the Left, which bemoans it. And it seems to imply, among other things, that free trade is the American Way.  Don’t Tread On Me or my right to import.

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