Progressives Forget Their Free-Trade Heritage at Own Peril
In its rush to embrace economic nationalism, the Left is abandoning its long tradition of supporting free trade, with potentially dangerous consequences.
Message for Joe: FDR believed in free trade.
Photographer: FPG/Getty
The most striking change in economic thinking on the mainstream left is the end of its romance with free trade. Bill Clinton and Tony Blair believed that the best way to create wealth was to lower trade barriers and invest in education. Today’s progressives dismiss that view as at best naive and at worst irresponsible. For them, the government’s job is far more capacious: subsidizing “critical industries,” raising trade barriers to hostile powers, pursuing industrial policy and forging strategic partnerships with business.
The United States is the great driver of this new thinking. Joe Biden has not only maintained Donald Trump’s tariffs but introduced almost a trillion dollars’ worth of subsidies and incentives. His aim is to protect and prevent: protect critical US industries from being too dependent on China and prevent China from getting ahead of the US in defense-related industries.