As this spring’s congressional debate heats up over ratification of the recent China-U.S. trade agreement, the mainstream media have once again dragged out the hoary morality play on “free trade.” On the dark side are protectionist unions, irresponsible eco-freaks, and the jingoist right. On the side of light and reason are the president, the Republican […]
Jeff Faux
Jeff Faux, founding president and now distinguished fellow at the Economic Policy Institute, is the author of The Servant Economy and The Global Class War.
Posted inFeatures
Trading on Terrorism:
“Sometimes,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said recently, “tragedy also presents opportunities for those who are alert.” Sure enough, in the collapse of the World Trade Center, the alert Mr. Zoellick saw an opportunity to appeal to wartime patriotism in order to put new trade deals on a congressional “fast track.” Fast-track authority allows a […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Can Liberals Tell a Credible Story?
If Democrats want to be more than bit players in the Reagan movie, the liberal story needs new characters, new images, and stronger language about opportunity, wealth, and inequality.
Posted inFeatures
The Global Alternative
The economic orthodoxy that guides the management of the global economy has failed to deliver. During the past two decades of accelerated privatization, deregulation, and free trade, global growth has actually slowed. The countries (mostly Asian) that grew faster rejected the advice of the bankers, bureaucrats, consultants, and media pundits who constitute the Washington Consensus […]
Posted inAmerica and the World
Slouching toward Seattle
The World Trade Organization so far is a business-oriented club that has undermined the mixed economy everywhere. But it might be the framework for a global New Deal. The Seattle trade meetings could set the tone.
Posted inArticle
A Trade Deal Built on Sand
The World Trade Organization finally found a safe place to hold a meeting. Doha, a city in the tiny Persian Gulf sheikhdom of Qatar, is only 1,000 miles from Afghanistan. It is a 9,000-mile flight from Seattle, where two years ago street protestors frustrated the WTO’s attempt to set an agenda for another “round” of […]
Posted inFeatures
Time for a New Deal with Mexico
M exican President-elect Vicente Fox, fresh from a historic victory that ended 71 years of one-party rule in his country, dropped in on U.S. lameduck President Bill Clinton just before Labor Day. He was brimming with ideas for further integrating their economies, including a proposal to open the border to more Mexicans seeking work in […]
Posted inFeatures
The Next Recession
A decade of prosperity has convinced a fair portion of the punditry that the new hi-tech service economy has lifted us into an economic orbit beyond boom and bust, where recessions are history. Unfortunately, there is little evidence that the laws of economic gravity no longer apply. Indeed, sensible people should now be preparing for […]
