Free Trade is Here to Stay So Mend it, Don't (Try to) End It

[ericson00]

I keep seeing stuff about "neoliberalism" here, mainly relating to current Democratic politicians as well as the GOP ones.

Has NAFTA, etc. been perfect? No. But there's maybe something to the fact that when NAFTA's implementation was signed in 1993, that at the time, every living former Prez (which then was from Nixon onward) supported it, and several attended Clinton signing it? Or that bipartisan POTUS leadership kept free trade moving? As did FDR too.

I think free trade can be fixed; we can lack tariffs, and hopefully, the next POTUS and Congress can enact serious offshoring penalties. But high import taxes are bad for the economy; the end. TPP isn't perfect, which is why the Democratic nominee is seeking a clearer picture of what would happen, but it means something that the Democratic Party platform didn't dismiss it.

But tariffs, scrapping NAFTA, etc. is not the answer. Unless you want another Depression. Hoover's protectionism is widely credited with speeding up the coming of the Depression. We don't need it again. Just because Wall Street likes free trade, doesn't mean its automatically bad. Bankers breath oxygen; should we start breathing nitrogen?