Jeff Faux Replies

Jay mandle devotes most of his argument to setting up a straw man—the notion that those of us who have opposed Washington’s corporate-driven global economic policies are “protectionists,” ignorant of the textbook benefits of expanded trade, or else people with a monstrous agenda “to punish the underdeveloped world.” The first charge is simplistic, the second is absurd. To be sure, some opponents of the president’s bill to renew his fast-track authority were protectionists, just as some of its supporters were sweatshop operators. But the rejection of fast-track was not a rejection of the principle of comparative advantage. The bulk of those members of Congress who voted against the proposal understand that we buy and sell on...