Dems Paint Romney as “Outsourcer-In-Chief,” But Will Obama’s Trade Deal Blow It?

[hay rick]

15. International trade has changed.

International trade benefited us when we were one of the few advanced manufacturing countries. The U. S. consistently maintained a trade surplus until 1975. Since then we have had only trade deficits and those deficits have expanded. A trade surplus increases GDP and a trade deficit reduces GDP. What benefited us then harms us now.

The "comparative advantage" mutual-benefit rationale for free trade is likewise a quaint relic from another age. Recent decades have witnessed the simultaneous emergence of burgeoning populations resulting in extraordinary third world urbanization (and labor pools) and the expansion of multinational corporations and financial institutions with access to huge accumulations of liquid capital and much more efficient and automated productive methods. Throw in fleets of container ships and you have a new era.

The real point of free trade now is to enable corporations to go tax and wage shopping. FDR did what he thought was good for the American people in the 30s and 40s. I suspect he would have seen a different problem calling for a different solution today.