Economist (and Democrat?) Brad DeLong explains the Mankiw statements:
http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/mov...es/000270.html
Quote:
Increasing trade does not create or destroy jobs in aggregate. The level of employment in the United States is determined by how good a job the Federal Reserve does in offsetting shocks to domestic demand, in setting monetary policy to hit the sweet spot where there is neither high unemployment nor rising inflation (with a secondary assist or hobbling by fiscal policy).
What trade does is to shift jobs, shift the composition of American employment: people in import-competing industries lose jobs, while people in export industries (or, with the capital inflow, construction and investment goods industries) gain jobs. Economists have lots of good reasons for believing that the jobs gained are better jobs than the jobs lost, and that there are more and bigger winners from expanded international trade than there are losers.
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DeLong doesn't want Kerry to use this:
Quote:
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John F. Kerry should know better. If he becomes president--and if he wishes to have a strong American economy--he will need to build support for expanding trade. Anything that he says now that makes that future task harder is not in America's interest, or even in his interest if he wants a second term.
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