Added layers of city-county, state, and sectional rivalries make effective economic or industrial policy impossible.
If so-called ‘public private partnerships’ PPPs, really take off, one can expect enormous unfettered poaching from largely foreign participants, call them Public-Global-Partnerships, or PGPs for short.
Old republicanism at the founding of the nation centered political participation on private property. It preferred small agrarian, geographically-based units, and restraints on property.
On trade, old republicanism was ‘protectionist’. The Republican party, starting with Lincoln, adopted protectionism, called at that time the ‘American system’, from the time of Lincoln until the time of FDR in 1930.
Globalization after 1930 has been claimed to have fostered ‘market’ states. Technology had already eliminated most western farmers. Commerce and finance are now global, abstract, not geolocal.
Multinationals are not identified with a place or country. As far back as 1931, General Motors in Europe, in Belgium specifically, criticized American protective tariffs, calling for free trade and laissez faire, not out of any sense of altruism, and without regard for the American economy.
Back then, GM didn’t fear foreign competition. Take a look at the situation now.
Contrary to popular mythology, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff did not bring about the Great Depression.
An argument can be made that post-WWI international trade, currency issues, and financial arrangements, including trends toward greater international economic and financial interdependence, amid widespread post-war recovery efforts, caused the Depression.
No comments:
Post a Comment