Wednesday 2 November 2016

Anti Trump letter from 370 economists

A group of 370 economists, including eight Nobel laureates in economics, have signed a letter warning against the election of Donald Trump. The letter calls him a "dangerous, destructive choice" for the country. And given his stated views on trade he is likely a "dangerous, destructive choice" for the rest of the world as well.

A few of the letter's statements on trade:
He has misled voters in states like Ohio and Michigan by asserting that the renegotiation of NAFTA or the imposition of tariffs on China would substantially increase employment in manufacturing. In fact, manufacturing’s share of employment has been declining since the 1970s and is mostly related to automation, not trade

He has falsely suggested that trade is zero-sum and that the “toughness” of negotiators primarily drives trade deficits.

He has misled the public with false statements about trade agreements eroding national income and wealth. Although the gains have not been equally distributed—and this is an important discussion in itself—both mean income and mean wealth have risen substantially in the U.S. since the 1980s.
Economist Letter 11012016 on Scribd

1 comment:

Michael Reddell said...

I could probably agree with most of their text, but......370 economists isn't exactly impressive. The US is about 70 times our size, and it would be easy enough to get 5 economists here to sign up to almost any cause (or opposition to any cause) one cares to name.