Like most academics, professors of economics are not generally stupid people, IQ-wise.  But they do have a remarkable ability to lose sight of basic  realities. I’ve seen this over and over again. I just had an extended e-mail exchange with one Ron Boudreaux, a professor of economics at George Mason…

First, let’s get the definitions straight, as confusion about definitions is the single biggest avoidable cause of economic nonsense. The trade deficit measures how much America’s imports exceed its exports. The federal deficit measures how much America’s government’s expenditures exceed its revenues. The cure for a trade deficit, for the…

Once upon a time there was a republic. Like many republics before and since, it was immensely proud that it was not ruled by a king. Long ago, in fact, the citizens of the republic had overthrown a king and sent him packing. The republic, like many other republics before…

[Editors Note: CPA does not endorse candidate.  The views of Ian Fletcher are his own.] I want to ignore the big election for a minute and focus on one congressional race in Colorado. This is a race that’s more important than most people realize, because it examples one of the…

Obama and Romney on China: Who’s Lying? Mitt Romney and Barack Obama have both been upping the ante on international trade issues lately, especially America’s big trade flashpoint, China. Romney recently picked up an unintended reverse endorsement, of a sort, from the Club for Growth, a millionaires’ club super PAC…

Mitt Romney certainly has been making some pleasant noises about fixing America’s trade mess, in which a $500 billion a year deficit is probably the biggest unsung reason our economy isn’t turning around. But does he really mean what he says? I’ve looked at the evidence here, here, here and most recently here. In reaction…

In my 2010 book “Free Trade Doesn’t Work,” I speculated that the following might occur: Both political parties are feeling the heat of an intensifying global economic challenge to the U.S. and are looking for ways to take the pressure off their voters Withdrawing from free trade (to an as…

Reposted from the Huffington Post ***** Power Politics vs. American Prosperity I had one of those “A-ha!” moments recently. I was engaged in an email dialogue with a moderately prominent individual active in America’s international trade relations. He’s a former high-ranking public official, important enough to matter but not a…

Leak Cracks Open Trans-Pacific Partnership Scandal Obama was warned, frankly, about the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Given his status as a center-left president, the public’s burgeoning disapproval of free-trade agreements, and the fact that he criticized such agreements when President Bush made them, he really should have known that such treaties were not for…

Reposted from the Huffington Post ***** A National Network for Manufacturing Innovation? Ian Fletcher  |  May 2, 2012  |  Huffington Post It’s no secret American manufacturing is in crisis, and that its problems form a significant component of our present economic mess. I’ve written before about how the Obama administration may (may!)…