Alastair nailed it. If the “new” right was serious, they’d advocate for a coalition of fellow democracies to stand against China, it’s the only way to match their scale. Instead, Oren ducks and spends his time fighting meaningless, backward looking battles against fellow establishment elites, most of whom wield little if any influence in today’s politics. Meanwhile, in the real world, the leader of his own movement controls the entire federal government. But predictably, Oren rarely musters a comment on the impacts of DonOrenomics. I suspect he fears being attacked by an administration that’s shown itself willing to use the full power of the federal government to smite those who criticize them. Gotta preserve your tax exempt status I guess…
Time to man up Oren, your team is in charge. Defend them. Enough with the fixation on the past.
25 years ago, Ralph Gomory (mathematician) and William Baumol (econ professor at NYU) wrote a book called Global Trade and Conflicting National Interests.
It remains to this day the finest academic takedown of Ricardian-derived, free-trade theories.
They summarize Ricardo's original case of 2 trading partners and 2 products. Then lay out, in painstaking econometrics models, the great variety of equilibrium points that are possible once you extend that to dozens of trading partners and hundreds of products. Finally, they bring in game theory to alanyze how countries can use policy choices to shift the equilibrium in their favor.
It's truly a devastating critique. 25 years ago, and they were utterly ignored. Imagine where we'd be had the economics profession not been so convinced of their own superiority. (And I have an econ degree, so I'm allowed to knock them.)
Indeed China is a mercantilist threat to the former West. So why on earth has Trump spent the last year and a half pissing off Europe, Canada and India instead of building a coalition of the USA's former allies against it? And why has Commonplace looked the other way while he did it?
Hi Oren, I appreciate your perspective, and certainly Paul Krugman has not been infallible. His views on Japan's economy 30 years ago and the EU economy since 2010 have also needed updating, which he has admittedly done in recent years. But I don't understand your finger-wagging toward Krugman for changing his mind when he is clearly saying "It’s not 20 years ago anymore" and "disregarding questions of national power made sense for about 70 years after World War 2," in other words the facts on the ground have changed. I could understand your pique if he was NOT changing his mind in the face of these shifting facts. It seems to me he deserves some credit for at least, um, letting the new landscape result in him coming to different conclusions. Or are you saying that his viewpoint was wrong 20-70 yrs ago too? If so, you have not convincingly made your case about that. Thanks, all the best
We need to give Krugman credit for openly acknowledging that he has been wrong. Economists so rarely do. Also, I sense that Oren will have several reasons to acknowledge error over the next few years, so I hope he is appropriately humble when the time comes. Meanwhile, I enjoy the fresh perspectives that Commonplace often brings. What I don't see is that Commonplace carries much weight with the real decision-makers of our current regime.
Krugman was off by 40 years. Rusting was there before there was a name for it in the mid 70s in the north east.
I think China has a pretty good handle on things in that they seek to promote industries in China's best self interest. We only assist our corporations in making more money, which is good for me, but bad for the people up and down my street. Trade can't even be measured in dollars, a ton of wheat has almost no value added via labor, an iphone or even a nice piece of clothing has a lot of labor in it.
Then there is national security, which includes N-95 masks, and we should make 10% of every imported item here, no matter the cost. Notice China's strategic petroleum reserve isn't even close to empty?
There is no individualism without community. The culture you live in provides you with a language and general points of view. The culture does not and should not prevent individuals from making life choices. But it most certainly informs them.
Alastair nailed it. If the “new” right was serious, they’d advocate for a coalition of fellow democracies to stand against China, it’s the only way to match their scale. Instead, Oren ducks and spends his time fighting meaningless, backward looking battles against fellow establishment elites, most of whom wield little if any influence in today’s politics. Meanwhile, in the real world, the leader of his own movement controls the entire federal government. But predictably, Oren rarely musters a comment on the impacts of DonOrenomics. I suspect he fears being attacked by an administration that’s shown itself willing to use the full power of the federal government to smite those who criticize them. Gotta preserve your tax exempt status I guess…
Time to man up Oren, your team is in charge. Defend them. Enough with the fixation on the past.
25 years ago, Ralph Gomory (mathematician) and William Baumol (econ professor at NYU) wrote a book called Global Trade and Conflicting National Interests.
https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/2545/Global-Trade-and-Conflicting-National-Interests
It remains to this day the finest academic takedown of Ricardian-derived, free-trade theories.
They summarize Ricardo's original case of 2 trading partners and 2 products. Then lay out, in painstaking econometrics models, the great variety of equilibrium points that are possible once you extend that to dozens of trading partners and hundreds of products. Finally, they bring in game theory to alanyze how countries can use policy choices to shift the equilibrium in their favor.
It's truly a devastating critique. 25 years ago, and they were utterly ignored. Imagine where we'd be had the economics profession not been so convinced of their own superiority. (And I have an econ degree, so I'm allowed to knock them.)
Indeed China is a mercantilist threat to the former West. So why on earth has Trump spent the last year and a half pissing off Europe, Canada and India instead of building a coalition of the USA's former allies against it? And why has Commonplace looked the other way while he did it?
Hi Oren, I appreciate your perspective, and certainly Paul Krugman has not been infallible. His views on Japan's economy 30 years ago and the EU economy since 2010 have also needed updating, which he has admittedly done in recent years. But I don't understand your finger-wagging toward Krugman for changing his mind when he is clearly saying "It’s not 20 years ago anymore" and "disregarding questions of national power made sense for about 70 years after World War 2," in other words the facts on the ground have changed. I could understand your pique if he was NOT changing his mind in the face of these shifting facts. It seems to me he deserves some credit for at least, um, letting the new landscape result in him coming to different conclusions. Or are you saying that his viewpoint was wrong 20-70 yrs ago too? If so, you have not convincingly made your case about that. Thanks, all the best
We need to give Krugman credit for openly acknowledging that he has been wrong. Economists so rarely do. Also, I sense that Oren will have several reasons to acknowledge error over the next few years, so I hope he is appropriately humble when the time comes. Meanwhile, I enjoy the fresh perspectives that Commonplace often brings. What I don't see is that Commonplace carries much weight with the real decision-makers of our current regime.
Also Lincoln:
“In all that the people can individually do as well for themselves, government ought not to interfere."
Krugman was off by 40 years. Rusting was there before there was a name for it in the mid 70s in the north east.
I think China has a pretty good handle on things in that they seek to promote industries in China's best self interest. We only assist our corporations in making more money, which is good for me, but bad for the people up and down my street. Trade can't even be measured in dollars, a ton of wheat has almost no value added via labor, an iphone or even a nice piece of clothing has a lot of labor in it.
Then there is national security, which includes N-95 masks, and we should make 10% of every imported item here, no matter the cost. Notice China's strategic petroleum reserve isn't even close to empty?
There is no individualism without community. The culture you live in provides you with a language and general points of view. The culture does not and should not prevent individuals from making life choices. But it most certainly informs them.
Boom.