tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post1046785876776493824..comments2024-03-28T07:50:06.102-04:00Comments on Mike Norman Economics: Lord Keynes — The Cult of Free Trade in a Nutshellmike normanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03296006882513340747noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-77004263273245288362016-07-04T22:22:16.705-04:002016-07-04T22:22:16.705-04:00I'm glad heterodox economists are starting to ...I'm glad heterodox economists are starting to question free trade. I used to feel all alone on the issue. <br /><br /><i>workers are fungible, and will be re-trained easily and moved</i><br /><br />Right. Some workers are fungible and easily re-trained and easily moved (the young and un-attached), some are not (older workers with family ties and specialized skills). <br /><br /><i>The argument for pure free trade is built on sand. </i><br /><br />Right. "Imports are real benefits and exports are real costs" only holds for scarce goods, like oil. It doesn't hold for knowledge products. You don't lose knowledge when you export a knowledge product, to the contrary, the more knowledge product you make, the more knowledge you gain. You do lose knowledge when knowledge industries move offshore.Dan Lynchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11189866002273597534noreply@blogger.com