Kudlow seems nice enough on the tv, but he's not a strong economist. Just a bog-standard right winger who doesn't revisit his theories when the results don't match them.
For me, free trade does some good and some damage, so if you go down that road, then you need to protect people against the costs. People in some industries will find themselves unemployed soon enough, and so a government wants to provide retraining programmes. And some vital industries demand protection (eg you don't want your food supply system entirely dependent on foreign sources of supply). These sorts of things.
Does that mean I believe in free trade? Nearly. Mostly. But the caveats are meaningful.
| 