"If you look at where nearly all of the clothes in your closet
were manufactured, as Dan Griswold does at the opening of Mad
about Trade, the picture is clear. China, Canada, Bangladesh,
Vietnam, Peru, Korea, Egypt, India, Mexico, Thailand, and more-a
United Nations of pants, shirts, ties, and jackets. In every sense
of the word, trade suits us exceedingly well.
Politicians and pundits can rage against free trade and
globalization, but much of what they convey is myth. Griswold
embraces the global marketplace and shows how free trade is the
American family's best friend. Here are a few of the benefits
Griswold takes us through:
• Import competition provides lower prices, greater variety, and
better quality, especially for poor and middle- class
families.
• Driven in part by trade, most new jobs are well-paying service
jobs that form the backbone of today's middle class.
• Trade barriers erected in the United States are manipulative and
harmful, and their "value" is often deliberately misrepresented by
those with economic or political axes to grind.
• Foreign investment here has created well-paying jobs, and
investment abroad has given United States companies access to
millions of new customers.
• Trade has helped expand the global middle class, reducing poverty
and child labor while fueling demand for U.S. products.
But, it's not just about better and cheaper goods. As Griswold
compellingly details, over the past three
decades trade and an open global economy have created a more
prosperous, democratic, and peaceful world.
Before you accept what you hear on cable TV and talk radio,
consider the real story of America's growing integration in the
world economy presented in Mad about Trade. This book is a
must-read for every American who wonders where we are all headed in
this more open world of ours."
