My talk on trade

Thanks Russ. Interesting idea.
I was always inspired by Hayek to receive exactly the same idea. Hayek says that socialism is a source of friction between the countries: "... if international economic relations, instead of being relations between individuals, become Increasingly relations between whole nations organized as trading bodies, Inevitably they become the source of frictions and envy between whole nations. It is one of the most fatal illusions that by substituting Negotiations between states or organized groups for competition for markets or for raw materials, international friction would be reduced ... "

I did like it. This solo performance was more expository than the last one. You argued your own point without trying to argue a counterpoint simultaneously. This expository approach appeals more to me, because constructing a counterpoint to one's own point is difficult. Constructing an easily debunked, straw man is tempting and practically impossible to resist if you've never much accepted the counterpoint. I was impressed with your counterpoint to Larry White's defense of Hayek though, knowing your sympathies.

You never used the word "synergy", but you described the idea. Basically, "identical" people can fruitfully specialize because each develops synergies with other capital. The people may be "identical" in some sense, genetically identical and raised identically for example, but the organizations of their labor with other capital are not identical, and an organization is more valuable than its separate, capital components disconnected from the organization. The whole is more valuable than the sum of its parts.