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“We shouldn’t want our lawmakers to play favorites between domestic interests, and people should be more skeptical when policymakers dip into protectionist rhetoric.” ~ James M. Hohman
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“One of the hardiest and most enduring fallacies in economics is the mercantilist fallacy: buying from foreigners is bad for us because we should ‘keep the money here;’ selling to foreigners is good for us because we can pile up more money.” ~ Art Carden
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“We can hope that, should Parliament today agree to a unilateral lowering of Britain’s trade barriers, other governments would today, as other governments did in the mid-19th century, respond by unilaterally lowering theirs.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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“Like Adam Smith, I’d prefer that trade be liberalized gradually as opposed to not at all. But perhaps unlike him, if I were put in front of a button to eliminate immediately all species of economic protectionism, I’d press it with gusto.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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“Like the trade that’s carried out using cargo ships, all trade – from the simplest to the most complex – works wonders. Trade allows each of us to turn our unique talents into the fruits of the talents of everyone with whom we trade.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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“Madison and Jefferson were both still alive when Henry Clay outlined his American System platform in 1824. Contrary to the NatCon claims, neither founding father approved of Clay’s proposals. In fact, both condemned it as a constitutional overreach by the federal government.” ~ Phillip W. Magness
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“You’ve heard the aphorism ‘one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.’ Trade turns trash into treasure by getting it out of one set of hands and into another.” ~ Art Carden
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“Paying more to produce goods domestically that could be acquired cheaper from elsewhere, wastes resources, kills jobs in other industries, and makes us poorer as a result.” ~ Brian Balfour
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“People who have actually experienced the ‘security’ that comes from insulation from market forces understand that the price they pay for this ‘security’ is far too high.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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“There is no plausible case to be made that for us Americans to improve our comparative advantages we need government to protect us from foreign competition.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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“Unlike market participants guided by prices, politicians and administrators literally have no reliable information to guide them. They will therefore be guided exclusively by their own biases and hunches.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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“As Henry Hazlitt reminds us, the art of economics consists not merely in looking at the effects on the most visible groups, but in tracing the effects on everyone.” ~ Art Carden