Richard McKenzie argues that economists generally understate the gains from free trade.
Richard Ebeling writes on tariff wars and the absurdity of concerns with the balance of trade. A slice:
Manufacturing supply-chains often zig and zag back and forth from one country or continent to another before the final products are ready to be shipped to and sold at the retail stores where the finished goods are offered to ultimate consumers all over our planet. Raw materials are mined or extracted in country “X,” then shipped for refining in country “B,” after which they are sent off to country “C” as an input or component part for the manufacture of a product in country “D,” and then sent on to country “E” for final assembly and finishing up, followed by being shipped off for sale in multitudes of other countries, including those in which these steps in the worldwide stages of the production process have all been undertaken.
Labels on things may still say, made in the USA, or made in China, or made in India, or made in Costa Rica, or . . . But in fact they are products made across the globe to serve and satisfy all of us as consumers, after many of us have participated in the respective production processes in the international system of division of labor that improves the standards and qualities of living of almost all of the over seven billion people inhabiting Planet Earth.
Speaking of global supply chains, here’s my colleague Alex Tabarrok. A slice:
When Americans buy a car from Mexico, half of what they buy was earlier imported from the United States (74% of foreign imports in the car are from US, foreign imports and labor account for 2/3 of value, .74*.66=48.44.
Kevin Williamson reflects on Venezuela.
Luis Pablo de la Horra reflects on Deirdre McCloskey’s theory of the industrial revolution.
