It's rare that I both agree with the basic thrust of an op-ed, and simultaneously find it utterly infuriating. So someone give Sebastian Mallaby the shiny new toaster oven and paisley luggage set, as he's penned just such a column. The actual points are, basically, good. Republicans engage in demagoguery on immigration and health care. Indeed they do. But the writing. Oh, the writing.
"It isn't just Democrats who flunk Globalization 101," says Mallaby. A sentence later: "Anyone who understands Globalization 101..." Who, exactly, is teaching Globalization 101? Is it Sebastian Mallaby? Greg Mankiw? Thomas Friedman? Dani Rodrik? Joe Stiglitz? Alan Blinder? What's on the syllabus? We're never told. But Mallaby, from his perch atop an op-ed page, is perfectly confident assuming shared knowledge in something called globalization 101.
Later we get, "the Republican Party, which prides itself on understanding globalization when it comes to capital flows or trade..." No it doesn't. The Republican Party doesn't wander around modeling currency movement. It advocates for corporate interests who derive economic benefit from unfettered capital flows and unlimited access to foreign markets. They may be right to do, they may be wrong to do, but there's no team of econometricians cranking out policy prescriptions deep in the RNC headquarters. Instead, there are corporate donors, and their checks, and their policy preferences.
And in closing, Mallaby gives us this gem: "In the 2004 election, the Kerry-Edwards ticket forfeited its claim to economic seriousness by opposing trade deals such as the Central American Free Trade Agreement." The medal of economic seriousness is, presumably, awarded by Sebastian Mallaby, in consultation with the editors of The Economist, Thomas Friedman, and the first three hours of an Economics 101 textbook on tape. I was not aware, however, that so much of the judging relied on support for a trade deal that retained American tariffs on sugar and textiles, reinforces pharmaceutical patents, and protects the MPAA. I guess that's why I've never been invited to the awards ceremony.
