Customer Reviews

Opening America's Market: U.S. Foreign Trade Policy Since 1776 (Business, Society, and the State)

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This is an incomplete and polemical history of U.S. trade policy written from a protectionist point of view. On the plus side, Eckes served as an International Trade Commissioner in the 1980s and has an insider's knowledge of American trade politics; in addition, while preparing the book, he turned up some interesting documents on the role of the State Department in trade remedy cases in the 1950s and '60s. However, he offers no economic analysis, does not present both sides of the trade debate, and sneers at professional economists rather than rebuts the case they make for free trade. (One almost wonders about his impartiality on the ITC). He also barely mentions U.S. policy in the GATT or the WTO. These are fatal lapses in a book on this subject. Not recommended.

I give the author high marks for explaining early on the difference between FREE trade and FAIR trade. While he is an avowed protectionist and much of what he offers must be balanced by more progressive views, the tide is turning as "true costs" become established and we all begin to realize that between exporting solid jobs for the middle class and the earnest blue collar trade specialists, and allowing illegal immigration and the Reagan-led destruction of the trade unions, we have put a stake in the heart of THE fundamental source of national power and prosperity: people.

See also:
The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism
The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy
Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class - And What We Can Do about It (BK Currents (Paperback))
The Global Class War: How America's Bipartisan Elite Lost Our Future - and What It Will Take to Win It Back
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
The Working Poor: Invisible in America
State of the Unions: How Labor Can Strengthen the Middle Class, Improve Our Economy, and Regain Political Influence
Election 2008: Lipstick on the Pig (Substance of Governance; Legitimate Grievances; Candidates on the Issues; Balanced Budget 101; Call to Arms: Fund We Not Them; Annotated Bibliography)