John Tamny at Real Clear Markets on the roots and prospects for free trade:
In his Tract on Monetary Reform, John Maynard Keynes made the essential point that when money is debased, enterprise is discredited, and trade barriers soon reveal themselves. Having witnessed the worldwide monetary errors of the ‘20s that led to economic isolationism in the ‘30s, Keynes knew well the importance of the 1944 Bretton Woods monetary standard, of which he was a chief architect. . . .
Unfortunately, we’ve regressed. The chaotic monetary and currency policy of the present Administration has given rise to the trade skeptics of the next.
Tuesday’s “election could put trade-liberalization on ice for a while.”
