Recommendations from our site
“Wolf’s book makes, in the most effective way I have seen, the classical economic arguments for openness. At root, the argument for free trade is not anything fancy and analytical. It’s that you and I won’t engage in an exchange unless we’re both better off and if we’re both better off, why should anyone else object, unless our exchange is inflicting some harm on someone else? What Wolf elucidates is all the benefits of exchange. Exchange promotes specialization and the division of labor, as Adam Smith pointed out. Exchange promotes comparative advantage, everyone gets to do what they do best. Exchange promotes competition, which is a huge spur to efficiency…As shown by Brexit and the rise of Trump, what happens far away is not the most pressing concern to people in industrial democracies, particularly when the economies of industrial democracies are struggling. But, ultimately, a world in which poor countries stay poor and in which rich countries are pursuing policies that are actively keeping them poor is very unlikely to be a stable or a successful world. That’s why the lessons of Wolf’s book are very powerful.” Read more...
The best books on Globalization
Larry Summers, Economist
