The city of Seattle, which had planned to make money on hosting the World Trade Organization, wound up trying to cut its losses by asking the WTO to end its conference early and leave town. Self-described free-traders who helped to create the WTO ought to be feeling the same way. The organization that writes the rules of world trade is now the focus of nearly every unionist, environmentalist, and capitalist-hating pressure group in the world.
Economic development requires participation in the international division of labor, writes Christopher Mayer.
Pat Buchanan, protectionist, now says that US trade sanctions are counterproductive and should be repealed. Yes, but so should all restrictions on trade.
Only the developing countries had it right in Seattle: both the protestors and the leading delegates represent a threat to free trade and enterprise.
The protesters and the Clinton administration are demanding higher wages in the developing world, but this would be the kiss of death for economies around the world.
Created in the name of free trade, and even backed by some free traders, the World Trade Organization has become what its fine-print promised it would be: a vehicle for economic planning.
Another day, another politician blasts economics as a discipline and political issue. (Column by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.)
The old formula is at work: distract the people from internal corruption. (Article by Yuri N. Maltsev)
Has capitalism triumphed since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and, if so, what type? (A news item from the Wall Street Journal)
The long history of fiat money and the disasters it has left in its wake. (Column by Albert Friedberg)
