Opinion pieces and speeches by EPI staff and associates.

[ THIS BLOG ENTRY WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED IN TMP CAFE BLOG ON APRIL 9, 2008. ]

The Crunchian take on globalization

By Jared Bernstein

Now that we’ve debated the principles of Crunch economics for a few days, I wanted to post one of the questions and answers that make up the core of the book. This one’s about globalization. It’s longer than most of the book’s Q&A discussions, but it’s not a simple topic and I try to add some nuance. See what you think.

Q: What’s so right and/or wrong about globalization? Am I really hurting American workers if I buy cheap imports? Should I feel lousy about this? Am I supposed to oppose trade deals? Isn’t our loss the gain of some poor person “over there” who probably needs the money even more than we do?

A: Settle in. Comfortable? This is going to take a few minutes.

Read the rest of this piece here.

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Jared Bernstein is senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.

[ POSTED TO VIEWPOINTS ON JULY 15, 2008. ]