Free-Trade Economists Begin To See the Light on Trade and Globalization

The great economist John Maynard Keynes once observed that people who think themselves practical and realistic are often slaves of “some defunct economist.” One long-dead economist who is poised to become very defunct is old David Ricardo. His free trade views have dominated thinking on international trade for decades. But the tide is beginning to turn among economists, as some highly respected academic economists move away from their doctrinaire position that all free trade is always good everywhere and begin to acknowledge that free trade and large trade deficits have inflicted substantial harm to the US economy. 

Top Ten Cases of Chinese IP Theft

Industrial espionage has been going on for centuries, but experts agree China’s espionage campaign is on a different scale from anything we’ve seen in history. It has been going on at least since the 1990s and there is no sign it is letting up. Targets include an incredibly broad range of US companies, embracing civilian as well as military technology, with a special focus on the telecom and Internet sector. In 2009, National Security Agency Director General Keith Alexander called Chinese IP theft “the greatest transfer of wealth in history.” He put the value of cyber-theft of US trade secrets and intellectual property (IP) at a stunning $250 billion a year and called it “our future disappearing in front of us.”