"America First" Trade Policy Works......

America First trade policy works.  Too bad it's not been practiced since the '70's or so, eh?  Here RealityCheck's Alan Tonelson mentions two opinion columns which just happen to agree with his position--from individuals who have never agreed with him before.

...That’s why I was so amazed to see in [Martin Wolf's] column this past Tuesday the observation that the United States “gains many of the benefits of trade through internal specialisation” essentially because it’s “a large country with a sophisticated economy and diverse resources….”

Wolf’s point may not sound like much. But it not only contradicts the long-standing conventional wisdom – and rationale for supporting the freest possible global trade flows – that emphasizes (1) the centrality of international specialization for maximizing the prosperity of all individual countries and indeed the entire world, and (2) the imperative of exposing national economic activity to global competition in order to force domestic industries continually to improve quality and lower costs....

In other words, size matters, and the US has size.  Size eliminates the old "sheep/wine" argument made by Ricardo and Smith.  There's plenty of market, resources, and skills available in the US.  No need to import any but a very few things.

Next up:

...Project Syndicate is best described as a digital op-ed page for globalist elites. Just as remarkable, and gratifying, the author of the post in question is Robert Skidelsky, a veteran British politician and venerable academic who’s best known for a highly acclaimed three-volume biography of John Maynard Keynes, the most influential economist of the 20^th century and a scholar whose work still shapes much global economic thought and policy.

According to Skidelsky, one of two major gaps in President Biden’s economic proposals – and especially his stated desire to rebuild manufacturing in America – is its failure to impose tight curbs on imports....

 ...what I found most intriguing was Skidelsky’s principal rationale: America’s still towering trade deficits are bound to permit too many of the job- and production-creating benefits of Mr. Biden’s stimulus spending to drain overseas.

That’s virtually identical to the case that I and a colleague made early during the recovery from the previous U.S. recession....

Along the way, Tonelson observes that anti-trust enforcement in the US has been MIA for decades, and it's something he thinks should be brought back.  That may explain why Tonelson is not a fave over at the US Chamber of Commerce-For Me, Not Thee.....