Oso, Can I tell Gustavito that in response to his comment I wanted to say somthing about “having babies” or have I reached my monthly limit?

I didn’t read all of that, so I’m not really sure what you said, but in case you didn’t mention it, 27 republican representatives voted against CAFTA.

One of the things I said in my post that didn’t seem to get much attention is, I only support free trade if it comes with open borders. The best workers should be able to migrate freely to the best work.

It seems to be working well in the EU, but the US would never ever agree to it, which is why we should push for some economic regulation to balance our immigration policies.

And rather than use up Oso’s blog as my own platform go to my blog to understand why I disagree.

Yeah, I agree. Actually, Democrats used to be for trade, as recently as the Clinton years. It’s pretty sad, IMHO, the direction they have taken over the years.

As far as the NY Times goes, well, it would look very bad on their part if they were not for free-trade. Within economics circles, as you already know, free-trade is not a partisan issue, both, liberals and conservatives, are supporters of free-trade (It is one of the few things you can get all economists to agree on). So if the NY Times was against free-trade, they would lose all credibility, since they would essentially be at odds with the whole economic community.

I love you. You are wrong.

I don’t know if you know it but I’ve got a BA in economics which means I’ve got an extra piece of paper with which to wipe my ass.
Anyway, I agree that protectionism and subsidizing of some goods when trying to create free trade goes against how free trade SHOULD function, and how it would be great if people didn’t try to protect things like sugar, beets, steel, bras. However, economists tend to do a crappy job at looking at not just fiscial costs but social costs. To me this is where the real problem lies. What are the social costs of having McDonalds in Mexico? What are the social costs of having maquiladroas along the border? What are the social costs of moving away from agricultual based society?