International trade grabbed headlines this week with Monday’s announcement that twelve governments have reached agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. While it should be of no surprise to see the news celebrated in the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal or the Council of Foreign Relations blog, it is unfortunate even libertarian organizations are praising the agreement.
Of course, this is not the first time alleged defenders of lassiez-faire have endorsed intergovernmental agreements that enhance the power of the state. Ferghane Azihari and Louis Rouanet put TPP in historical context in Wednesday’s Mises Daily:
Murray Rothbard opposed NAFTA and showed that what the Orwellians were calling a “free trade” agreement was in reality a means to cartelize and increase government control over the economy. Several clues lead us to the conclusion that protectionist policies often hide behind free trade agreements, for as Rothbard said, “genuine free trade doesn’t require a treaty.”
Dr. Ed Stringham takes on the notion that government is necessary at all for markets and trade to thrive in his new book Private Governance. He joined Jeff Deist to discuss his work on the latest episode of Mises Weekends. Listen as Jeff and Ed destroy the argument that markets rely on government to protect property rights, mediate contracts, and numerous other excuses interventionists make in defense of the state.
In case you missed any of them, here are articles from this past week’s Mises Daily and Mises Wire:
- The TPP and the Trade Rhetoric by Carmen Elena Dorobăț
- TPP: The Latest Assault on Free Trade by Ryan McMaken
- Rothbard: Gun Regulation Explained by Murray Rothbard
- In Policy Debates, Can Economics Trump Ethics? by Matt McCaffrey
- The Future Is Decentralized by Patrick Byrne
- No More “Free Trade” Treaties: It’s Time for Genuine Free Trade by Ferghane Azihari and Louis Rouanet
- The Menace of Egalitarianism by Lew Rockwell
- Fashionable Prohibition for Modern Lawmakers by Ryan McMaken
- In Brazil, Free-Market Ideas Rise as the Economy Falls by Antony P. Mueller
- Missed last Saturday’s Mises Circle? Watch Jeff Deist, Tom DiLorenzo, Tom Woods and Lew Rockwell tackle the threat of political correctness.
