SWBP as I call it, Solutions for the World's Biggest Problems, is a book I'm reading; 2007, Edited by Bjorn Lomborg, Director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, Chapter 4: Subsidies and Trade Barriers, written and solved by Kym Anderson, from the University of Adelaide and the World Bank. Big money, big money! Summary and Commentary:
Tear down the wall
The gist is that government intervention in markets causes harm. The brunt of which is carried by the poor. It's a no-brainer. The benefits of completely removing all trade barriers would be between 67 and 260 times the costs. No trade or agricultural barriers would result in benefits estimated to reach 287B US dollars a year. Include services, and the benefit goes up to 2.4T US dollars. That's T as in Trillion.
Cushioning the blow for those who lose their jobs would be a short-term headache, but the boost to economic growth would soon create many new jobs.
Such widely distributed prosperity makes trade liberalization a high priority, in Mrs. (?) Anderson's view. The distortionary policies in agriculture and clothing, in particular, are especially harmful to the world's poor. My whole religious sensibility is centered around lifting poor people from struggle, misery, and want. This one should be easy, once the world's policy makers are educated, with solid data from the past, as well as the theoretical model, of why liberalization works. Liberal is not a dirty word, you know. With a potential payoff of 260 dollars for every dollar spent, the political will for creating completely free trade should be ample. Even 67:1 is a mighty good deal.
2 days ago
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