[1010RD]

Well done and you got to him first.

People need to read and re-read Bastiat. The amount of economic confusion and ignorance on FR is astounding.

That people confuse our national debt, the imaginary trade “deficit”, and free trade stuns me.

[Alberta's Child]

I find this very issue to be among the most fascinating of all on the modern political/economic scene -- mainly because I've found that I can make very compelling arguments on both sides of the issue.

Trade policy is extremely complex, and often faces one of the basic flaws of any democratic system -- in that it is often subject to overly simplistic "solutions" that make for great sound bites but are completely impractical when it comes to actually carrying them out. They're also subject to a large degree of risk related to unintended consequences.

On a an interesting note, I just finished reading an article about how strong the recent growth has been at port facilities in the NY/NJ and Los Angeles areas -- driven almost entirely by exports.