Description
Instructions:
- Read Chapters Eleven & Twelve of Henry Hazlitt’s, Economics in One Lesson
Links to an external site.. For your first post for this Discussion, you will need to read through President-elect Biden’s positionLinks to an external site. on free trade. You may also use other sources; this one is to just help you to get started.
- Trump made hostility toward China a centerpiece of his “America First” trade agenda, launching bitter attacks against Beijing’s policies and setting off a trade war by slapping tariffs on two-thirds of Chinese imports.All those attacks have changed the relationship between the two economic superpowers, according to experts. And although President-elect Joe Biden will likely set a more polite tone, he can ill afford to ease off on China as American attitudes toward trade and big global deals have soured in recent years.Meanwhile, skepticism toward China abounds in both parties, especially among the progressives who helped elect Biden.”I think the continued inflammatory rhetoric that President Trump has used toward China has basically made it impossible for any administration to immediately come in and change course,” says Chad Bown, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. It’s a marked change for an incoming president who voted for the North American Free Trade Agreement, despite later expressing misgivings about it. He also once voted to set the path for China to enter the World Trade Organization, eventually helping fuel the Asian country’s incredible rise as a manufacturing superpower.But Trump, experts note, has successfully shifted the debate on China by repeatedly accusing Beijing of predatory policies that gutted American industries, even if few companies have relocated back to the United States.Meanwhile, years of job losses and factory closures have hardened public views about trade, especially in key electoral states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan, according to Arthur Dong, a professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. During the campaign, Biden criticized what he sees as Trump’s go-it-alone approach to China and said that the U.S. needs to ally itself with Asia and Europe to force Beijing to play by the rules on trade. https://www.npr.org/2020/11/18/935718860/trump-lau…
- Choose two specific positions from President-elect Biden’s position that you agree/disagree with. In your post, discuss why you agree/disagree with his position, and support your argument with economic theory, modeling or empirical evidence. A graph or table will earn you extra credit points!
- Your post must be at least 250 words, and you must cite at least one source in your discussion. Initial posts must be made by Thursday to avoid a ten point late penalty.
