How Digitalization Is Re-making Global Commerce
November 17, 2019 | The Hill
Bring up the topic of international trade and the conversation invariably turns to tariffs, subsidies, trade wars (particularly with China), counterfeit goods, and intellectual property violations. Descending from the policy plane to the operational level—talking business now—and one finds not just challenges but limitless possibilities in international business resulting from the digitalization of global commerce...... more
The Myth of De-globalization
October 9, 2019 | The Hill
The Economist Michael O’Sullivan argues in his new book The Leveling: What’s Next After Globalisation that globalization is dead. As long-standing scholars of globalization and competitiveness our response to that alleged demise was uttered most appropriately 122 years ago by American writer and humorist Mark Twain who exclaimed: "The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated"...... more
Recessionary Anxiety
August 24, 2019 | The Hill
Recessions have a lot in common with earthquakes, heart attacks, and school shootings---you have no idea when they will occur. However, unlike the aforementioned calamities, there are indicators, telltale signs when a recession is in the offing...... more
President Trump’s Good Deed—Talking up the Dollar
August 1, 2019 | The Hill
President Trump’s smack down of Peter Navarro, Assistant to the President and Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, for Navarro’s call to weaken the U.S. dollar was a breath of fresh air in an otherwise protectionist administration. Since his appointment to the Trump administration, this undistinguished economist has led a one-man jihad against China, claimed near and far that tariffs on imports harm foreign exporters but not American consumers, and spewed nonsense that would have earned any freshman economics student a grade of “F”...... more
The Stupidity of Arming Teachers
July 10, 2019 | The Hill
Imagine, if you will, the following scenario. Katherine Gomez, a 10th grade biology teacher,
frequents an indoor gun range on weekends. Pistol shooting has been a hobby of hers for the past
7 years, and she is very proficient—in fact, a marksman. Slow firing at 15 yards, Katherine can hit
bullseye after bullseye. She is confident that if her state were to allow teachers to carry firearms,
she would have the upper hand over any armed assailant at her school...... more
Mexico tariffs: Bad politics, harebrained policy
June 5, 2019 | The Hill
“Trade wars are good and easy to win,” according to the president, a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Having been associated with that educational bastion of free-market capitalism for seven years, he’s the only person I’ve ever heard of with a degree from there who holds that belief...... more
The Truth about Trade—The Good News that is Overlooked
May 13, 2019 | The Hill
A cursory examination of media stories on trade can mistakenly lead readers to believe that the current state of U.S. trade with the world is bleak. A merchandise trade deficit, the unsettled issue of a NAFTA replacement (the USMCA), and commercial squabbles with China do not paint a pretty picture. But closer scrutiny of the current state of U.S. trade competitiveness reveals much to celebrate—in two areas in particular: services and trade facilitation...... more
AOC, Bernie Sanders confuse inequality with poverty
April 27, 2019 | The Hill
“Socialism,” anathema to many but a path worth exploring to others, has been packaged nicely as “democratic socialism” (a hilarious oxymoron) by millionaire author Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and proselytized by neophyte Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) who, like the president, invents statistics extemporaneously...... more
Does a Nation’s Economic Growth Make People Happy?
March 31, 2019 | Latin Trade
A thorough review and evaluation of independent, empirical research studies on happiness in Latin America and its relationship to economic growth reveal a surprisingly different portrait than what one would think...... more
Business, investors, consumers - and nations - will have to navigate 2019's age of anxiety
January 18, 2019 | The Miami Herald
British poet W.H. Auden wrote “The Age of Anxiety” in 1947. But it's an apt description of the economic - not to mention psychosocial - environment in which we find ourselves today. The stock market tanks 600 points in one day then recovers by the same amount the next. Populist politicians make absurd pronouncements that freak out the investment community, and consumers...... more
Small is Beautiful—Uruguay’s Competitive Advantage
January 10, 2019 | Latin Trade
Economist E.F. Schumacher’s 1973 opus Small is Beautiful advocates for small, appropriate technologies that are believed to empower people above a “bigger is better” philosophy of economic development...... more
Latin America in 2019: A Year of Disruption?
January 7, 2019 | Latin Trade
“Disruption”, a much bandied about term during the last several years, is a hallmark of the first quarter of the 21st century. A worldwide phenomenon, it is characterized by a break from the norm and manifested in both positive and negative forms, such as 3D printing and blockchain on the one hand and the dramatic increase in populism and trade protectionism on the other...... more