Conversation Between ckaihatsu and Fellow_Human

  1. Fellow_Human
    Got it. Thanks again, Chris. Very informative.
  2. Fellow_Human
    Thanks, Chris. That makes sense.

    It just leaves me wondering about one last thing. If both bourgeois strata are broadly pro-trade, then what is the source of protectionist advocacy in politics? Do you attribute it entirely to populism and nothing else? Do you believe any part of it to be explainable by the desire of local small businesses to restrain transnational competitors?
  3. Fellow_Human
    (Continuation of preceding comment)

    ...Furthermore, in the US, the question of international trade creates schisms both among Democrats and among Republicans.

    Among US social liberals, there is a schism between the establishment "modern liberals," who are even ahead of the Republicans in their championing of free-trade agreements, and the more left-leaning "progressives," whose rhetoric often espouses such populist positions as "stopping our jobs from going to China" (a group that includes Sanders and his supporters, and has remarkably similar views on trade as Trump's supporters).

    So this is an *extremely* divisive issue, and I'm at pains to discern all the forces at work.
  4. Fellow_Human
    Hi, Chris. You've talked about the conflicting interests of the "rentier economic faction" and equity holders. There's something I'm struggling to grasp, namely their disagreements on trade policy.

    Keynesians are concerned with maintaining a "trade balance;" monetarists are not (neither the Chicago School nor the Austrian School). In fact, Friedman even argued that there was nothing behind "trade balance" efforts but the lobbying interests of exporting industries. Whether and how this plays into the hands of either stratum, I don't know.

    The same group which argues for a tight monetary policy and a balanced budget is also the groups which argues most aggressively for the free movements of goods and people. Why *would* the "rentier economic faction" be at the forefront of the latter?

    (Continued in next comment)
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