/biz/ - Business & Finance

>>831602
How the fuck do you even quantify "trade freedom"? Also, correlation/causation, etc.

>>831602
>Is protectionism actually worthwhile and good?
Protip: every country in the world that got rich pursued protectionist policy (particularly the USA). Every country that didn't get rich pursued bullshit Washington Consensus "economic liberalism".

>>831602
Complicated question. It depends on so many things.

>>831602
>99% of economists dont work in the real economy (professors)
also they dont like the trillion dollar student debt bubble.... and yet universities continue to raise tuition 7% a year

>>831602
I use to be a NAFTA supporter but have to admit that Perot was right, we shipped our labor costs south of the border. I would caution about measuring protectionist policies against poverty as the depressed nations are the ultimate skew and shouldn't be thought of as causation. Infrastructure and strong banking are far more important in robust economies 0 a trait that predates capitalism.

For new and developing countries yes. It allows their own companies to grow against stronger foreign companies. Once they are strong enough to take on the rest of the world you can weaken the protectionism and let them compete.

The reason the international banks only offered money in return for an open economy in developing countries is because africa is stuffed with natural resources and the west (especially resource poor europe) wanted it for cheap

>>831602
Protectionism is a very bad thing
>Look at New Zealands farming policies which they are now just starting to recover from.
The problem is that for a nation to give up it's own protectionist policies there must be reciprocation from all other countries. No one wants to be at a disadvantage

>>831602
Broadly speaking, protectionism is harmful. There are very few instances where it makes logical sense to enact protectionist policies and those cases transcend purely economic reasons.

>>831615
Every country in the wordl has pursued some sort of protectionist policies, but the US and other prospering countries pursued it far less. For example US still has one of the lowest import duty taxes and almost no tariffs, or barriers to entry.

>>832060
That is a load of shit and you know it.

We recovered from Muldoon by the end of Lange. The best system is to trade protectively by skewing your advantages in your favour, like the direct price control which dutch farmers have in the EU which shitpits the Brits. Avoid protecting unproductive industry, but still provide some buffering.

The policies of rising nations, such as the US in the 19th century or the British in the 18th, is what should be examined within the context of the applicability of those ideas to the present trading situation of your respective nation.

>>832454
You have it backward. America went through a civil war for protectionism. It had the highest tariffs in the whole world for decades to nurture Yankee produce. That's how the USA became rich.