Categories:
International Trade
They’re baaaack. Mercantilists, that is. Charles Hooper writes:
Whether they realize it or not, many modern politicians of various stripes are mercantilists. Just watch the news and you’ll see those in our government and in the media expressing predominantly mercantilist views: Our trading partners’ currencies are too cheap and the trade deficit is too high–together, these two factors reduce domestic employment.
In this month’s Econlib Feature Article, “Mercantilism Lives,” Charles Hooper takes on the modern mercantilists.
READER COMMENTS
tracy w
Apr 4 2011 at 2:02pm
This is overly optimistic. It implies that there was a time where they went away.
Lord
Apr 4 2011 at 2:23pm
You mean our trading partners are mercantilists. Pointing that out is not necessarily mercantilist.
Richard A.
Apr 4 2011 at 3:17pm
There is the flip side of import protectionism and that is export subsidies.
Too often protectionists will exaggerate other countries trade restrictions and understate ours to get the trade relief they want. In the eighties, Japanese protectionism was grossly exaggerated by those who were pushing for protectionism against Japanese imports.
Troy Camplin
Apr 4 2011 at 4:42pm
The mercantilists have been back for a while. They are also known as the Keynesians. Keynes was a mercantilist, and it is a horrible infection in economics. Politicians have always been mercantilists, which is why they are Keynesians.
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