Clashing Over Commerce

Clashing Over Commerce PDF Author: Douglas A. Irwin
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022639901X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 873

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Book Description
A Foreign Affairs Best Book of the Year: “Tells the history of American trade policy . . . [A] grand narrative [that] also debunks trade-policy myths.” —Economist Should the United States be open to commerce with other countries, or should it protect domestic industries from foreign competition? This question has been the source of bitter political conflict throughout American history. Such conflict was inevitable, James Madison argued in the Federalist Papers, because trade policy involves clashing economic interests. The struggle between the winners and losers from trade has always been fierce because dollars and jobs are at stake: depending on what policy is chosen, some industries, farmers, and workers will prosper, while others will suffer. Douglas A. Irwin’s Clashing over Commerce is the most authoritative and comprehensive history of US trade policy to date, offering a clear picture of the various economic and political forces that have shaped it. From the start, trade policy divided the nation—first when Thomas Jefferson declared an embargo on all foreign trade and then when South Carolina threatened to secede from the Union over excessive taxes on imports. The Civil War saw a shift toward protectionism, which then came under constant political attack. Then, controversy over the Smoot-Hawley tariff during the Great Depression led to a policy shift toward freer trade, involving trade agreements that eventually produced the World Trade Organization. Irwin makes sense of this turbulent history by showing how different economic interests tend to be grouped geographically, meaning that every proposed policy change found ready champions and opponents in Congress. Deeply researched and rich with insight and detail, Clashing over Commerce provides valuable and enduring insights into US trade policy past and present. “Combines scholarly analysis with a historian’s eye for trends and colorful details . . . readable and illuminating, for the trade expert and for all Americans wanting a deeper understanding of America’s evolving role in the global economy.” —National Review “Magisterial.” —Foreign Affairs

Clashing Over Commerce

Clashing Over Commerce PDF Author: Douglas A. Irwin
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022639901X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 873

Get Book Here

Book Description
A Foreign Affairs Best Book of the Year: “Tells the history of American trade policy . . . [A] grand narrative [that] also debunks trade-policy myths.” —Economist Should the United States be open to commerce with other countries, or should it protect domestic industries from foreign competition? This question has been the source of bitter political conflict throughout American history. Such conflict was inevitable, James Madison argued in the Federalist Papers, because trade policy involves clashing economic interests. The struggle between the winners and losers from trade has always been fierce because dollars and jobs are at stake: depending on what policy is chosen, some industries, farmers, and workers will prosper, while others will suffer. Douglas A. Irwin’s Clashing over Commerce is the most authoritative and comprehensive history of US trade policy to date, offering a clear picture of the various economic and political forces that have shaped it. From the start, trade policy divided the nation—first when Thomas Jefferson declared an embargo on all foreign trade and then when South Carolina threatened to secede from the Union over excessive taxes on imports. The Civil War saw a shift toward protectionism, which then came under constant political attack. Then, controversy over the Smoot-Hawley tariff during the Great Depression led to a policy shift toward freer trade, involving trade agreements that eventually produced the World Trade Organization. Irwin makes sense of this turbulent history by showing how different economic interests tend to be grouped geographically, meaning that every proposed policy change found ready champions and opponents in Congress. Deeply researched and rich with insight and detail, Clashing over Commerce provides valuable and enduring insights into US trade policy past and present. “Combines scholarly analysis with a historian’s eye for trends and colorful details . . . readable and illuminating, for the trade expert and for all Americans wanting a deeper understanding of America’s evolving role in the global economy.” —National Review “Magisterial.” —Foreign Affairs

Clashing Over Commerce

Clashing Over Commerce PDF Author: Douglas A. Irwin
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022639896X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 873

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Book Description
Revenue. The struggle for Independence, 1763-1789 ; Trade policy for the new nation, 1789-1816 ; Sectional conflict and crisis, 1816-1833 ; Tariff peace and Civil War, 1833-1865 -- Restriction. The failure of tariff reform, 1865-1890 ; Protectionism entrenched, 1890-1912 ; Policy reversals and drift, 1912-1928 ; The Hawley-Smoot tariff and the Great Depression, 1928-1932 -- Reciprocity. The New Deal and reciprocal trade agreements, 1932-1943 ; Creating a multilateral trading system, 1943-1950 ; New Order and new stresses, 1950-1979 ; Trade shocks and response, 1979-1992 ; From globalization to polarization, 1992-2017 -- Conclusion

Peddling Protectionism

Peddling Protectionism PDF Author: Douglas A. Irwin
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400888425
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
A history of America's most infamous tariff The Smoot-Hawley tariff of 1930, which raised U.S. duties on hundreds of imported goods to record levels, is America's most infamous trade law. It is often associated with—and sometimes blamed for—the onset of the Great Depression, the collapse of world trade, and the global spread of protectionism in the 1930s. Even today, the ghosts of congressmen Reed Smoot and Willis Hawley haunt anyone arguing for higher trade barriers; almost single-handedly, they made protectionism an insult rather than a compliment. In Peddling Protectionism, Douglas Irwin provides the first comprehensive history of the causes and effects of this notorious measure, explaining why it largely deserves its reputation for combining bad politics and bad economics and harming the U.S. and world economies during the Depression. In four brief, clear chapters, Irwin presents an authoritative account of the politics behind Smoot-Hawley, its economic consequences, the foreign reaction it provoked, and its aftermath and legacy. Starting as a Republican ploy to win the farm vote in the 1928 election by increasing duties on agricultural imports, the tariff quickly grew into a logrolling, pork barrel free-for-all in which duties were increased all around, regardless of the interests of consumers and exporters. After Herbert Hoover signed the bill, U.S. imports fell sharply and other countries retaliated by increasing tariffs on American goods, leading U.S. exports to shrivel as well. While Smoot-Hawley was hardly responsible for the Great Depression, Irwin argues, it contributed to a decline in world trade and provoked discrimination against U.S. exports that lasted decades. Peddling Protectionism tells a fascinating story filled with valuable lessons for trade policy today.

The Wealth of a Nation

The Wealth of a Nation PDF Author: C. Donald Johnson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190865911
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 665

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Book Description
The United States is entering a period of profound uncertainty in the world political economy--an uncertainty which is threatening the liberal economic order that its own statesmen created at the end of the Second World War. The storm surrounding this threat has been ignited by an issue that has divided Americans since the nation's founding: international trade. Is America better off under a liberal trade regime, or would protectionism be more beneficial? The issue divided Alexander Hamilton from Thomas Jefferson, the agrarian south from the industrializing north, and progressives from robber barons in the Gilded Age. In our own times, it has pitted anti-globalization activists and manufacturing workers against both multinational firms and the bulk of the economics profession. Ambassador C. Donald Johnson's The Wealth of a Nation is an authoritative history of the politics of trade in America from the Revolution to the Trump era. Johnson begins by charting the rise and fall of the U.S. protectionist system from the time of Alexander Hamilton to the Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930. Challenges to protectionist dominance were frequent and often serious, but the protectionist regime only faded in the wake of the Great Depression. After World War II, America was the primary architect of the liberal rules-based economic order that has dominated the globe for over half a century. Recent years, however, have seen a swelling anti-free trade movement that casts the postwar liberal regime as anti-worker, pro-capital, and--in Donald Trump's view--even anti-American. In this riveting history, Johnson emphasizes the benefits of the postwar free trade regime, but focuses in particular on how it has attempted to advance workers' rights. This analysis of the evolution of American trade policy stresses the critical importance of the multilateral trading system's survival and defines the central political struggle between business and labor in measuring the wealth of a nation.

Free Trade Under Fire

Free Trade Under Fire PDF Author: Douglas A. Irwin
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691201005
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
An updated look at global trade and why it remains as controversial as ever Free trade is always under attack, more than ever in recent years. The imposition of numerous U.S. tariffs in 2018, and the retaliation those tariffs have drawn, has thrust trade issues to the top of the policy agenda. Critics contend that free trade brings economic pain, including plant closings and worker layoffs, and that trade agreements serve corporate interests, undercut domestic environmental regulations, and erode national sovereignty. Why are global trade and agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership so controversial? Does free trade deserve its bad reputation? In Free Trade under Fire, Douglas Irwin sweeps aside the misconceptions that run rampant in the debate over trade and gives readers a clear understanding of the issues involved. In its fifth edition, the book has been updated to address the sweeping new policy developments under the Trump administration and the latest research on the impact of trade.

Money, Markets, and Sovereignty

Money, Markets, and Sovereignty PDF Author: Benn Steil
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300156146
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 301

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Book Description
Winner of the 2010 Hayek Book Prize given by the Manhattan Institute "Money, Markets and Sovereignty is a surprisingly easy read, given the complicated issues covered. In it, Mr. Steil and Mr. Hinds consistently challenge today's statist nostrums."—Doug Bandow, The Washington Times In this keenly argued book, Benn Steil and Manuel Hinds offer the most powerful defense of economic liberalism since F. A. Hayek published The Road to Serfdom more than sixty years ago. The authors present a fascinating intellectual history of monetary nationalism from the ancient world to the present and explore why, in its modern incarnation, it represents the single greatest threat to globalization. Steil and Hinds describe the current state of international economic relations as both unusual and precarious. Eras of economic protectionism have historically coincided with monetary nationalism, while eras of liberal trade have been accompanied by a universal monetary standard. But today, the authors show, an unprecedentedly liberal global trade regime operates side by side with the most extreme doctrine of monetary nationalism ever contrived—a situation bound to trigger periodic crises. Steil and Hinds call for a revival of the political and economic thinking that underlay earlier great periods of globalization, thinking that is increasingly under threat by more recent ideas about what sovereignty means.

East Asia Integrates

East Asia Integrates PDF Author: Kathie L. Krumm
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821355147
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
Emerging East Asian economies have seen their share of world exports more than triple during the past 25 years, a trend driven by intraregional trade. Increasingly, the development agenda in the region, focusing on growth, jobs and social stability, has become interconnected with trade policy aspects, including market access and competitiveness. In the light of these links, this collection of papers discusses fundamental strategies to promote cross-border trade flows, both globally and regionally, along with domestic policies on logistics, trade facilitation, standards and institutions, in order to maximise development outcomes and distribute the gains from trade widely.

Against the Tide

Against the Tide PDF Author: Douglas A. Irwin
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691058962
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
A delightful as well as educational read. It should be a set text for anyone interested in trade policy - The Economist.

Cities of Commerce

Cities of Commerce PDF Author: Oscar Gelderblom
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691168202
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
Cities of Commerce develops a model of institutional change in European commerce based on urban rivalry. Cities continuously competed with each other by adapting commercial, legal, and financial institutions to the evolving needs of merchants. Oscar Gelderblom traces the successive rise of Bruges, Antwerp, and Amsterdam to commercial primacy between 1250 and 1650, showing how dominant cities feared being displaced by challengers while lesser cities sought to keep up by cultivating policies favorable to trade. He argues that it was this competitive urban network that promoted open-access institutions in the Low Countries, and emphasizes the central role played by the urban power holders--the magistrates--in fostering these inclusive institutional arrangements. Gelderblom describes how the city fathers resisted the predatory or reckless actions of their territorial rulers, and how their nonrestrictive approach to commercial life succeeded in attracting merchants from all over Europe. Cities of Commerce intervenes in an important debate on the growth of trade in Europe before the Industrial Revolution. Challenging influential theories that attribute this commercial expansion to the political strength of merchants, this book demonstrates how urban rivalry fostered the creation of open-access institutions in international trade.

Trade Policy and Economic Welfare

Trade Policy and Economic Welfare PDF Author: Warner Max Corden
Publisher: Oxford : Clarendon Press
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 444

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Book Description
The second edition of this classic text on international economics has been substantially revised and updated to take account of the considerable activity in this field over the last two decades. Three new chapters discuss trade policy and the environment, strategic trade policy, and tradepolicy and the exchange rate. Corden also analyzes in detail the many arguments for protection.