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The notable economist Greg Mankiw had a very sensible article in the Economic View column of the New York Times regarding Nafta, trade, and this campaign. Its main contentions include:

1. That economists are far more fond of free trade than the general public. For instance:

A 2006 poll of Ph.D. members of the American Economic Association found that 87.5 percent agreed that “the U.S. should eliminate remaining tariffs and other barriers to trade.”

On the other hand, a minority of the general public (around one in four according to many polls including one mentioned in the article) think that free trade is beneficial to the economy.

2. John McCain has been a constant champion of free trade throughout his career and is the only of the three candidates who will stand strong for the concept as president.

3. The issue of trade has become mired by populism recently and divorced from economics which could lead us towards more protectionist policies.

Its a good article which reaffirms one of the themes that I have been focusing on especially during this campaign: how populism and economic illiteracy is driving protectionist rhetoric and proposals from politicians not entirely limited to the left (will Mike Huckabee please stand up).

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The Mankiw defends Nafta; Economists favor free trade by New School Politics, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.