la libertad y el mercado o se asisten mutuamente o se hunden juntos

"Libertad y mercado" de Federico Jiménez Losantos:

Krugman, uno de tantos progres que se niegan a aprender de sus derrotas –el negocio de la progresía es ese: la negación del principio de realidad económica o política y la afirmación del principio del placer de sentirse superiores moralmente a los demás- ha llegado a España, cuya economía dice que le aterra, de la mano del terrorífico Zapatero. A tal señor, tal honor. Y critica a su adorado Obama por la misma razón de fondo por la que critica los diez años de Depresión tras 1929: porque el New Deal rooseveltiano no se atrevió "a ir hasta el final" en su intervencionismo. Lo hicieron soviéticos, fascistas, nazis y demás depredadores de la libertad social y defensores de la idolatría del Estado. De eso no hablan los progres, pero en última instancia lo que se critica en Roosevelt es lo que define a keynesianos a lo Krugman: nunca se atreven a llevar hasta el final su ataque al libre mercado: son totalitarios pero sin valor para reconocerlo, una cobardía subvencionada respetuosamente por los liberales de boquilla, que suelen ser tan intervencionistas como todos los políticos de cualquier condición. Y si hay algo clarísimo es que el proteccionismo da más poder al Poder y quita poder al ciudadano. Por eso la libertad y el mercado o se asisten mutuamente o se hunden juntos.

Proteccionism will hit MBA workforce

"The Open-Door Bailout by Thomas Friedman:

While I think President Obama has been doing his best to keep the worst protectionist impulses in Congress out of his stimulus plan, the U.S. Senate unfortunately voted on Feb. 6 to restrict banks and other financial institutions that receive taxpayer bailout money from hiring high-skilled immigrants on temporary work permits known as H-1B visas.

buy American, destroy jobs

"Buy American" plan could cost U.S. jobs: study

"Buy American" provisions under consideration in Congress as part of a huge economic stimulus bill could create only 1,000 new steel industry jobs and might cost as many as 65,000 across a number of sectors, a new study said on Tuesday.

tradewarmongering

Out of Gaps In Treaties, First Salvos Of Trade War:

In 1930, Congress fired the first shot in a protectionist battle that prolonged and deepened the Great Depression. After passing a bill aimed at saving American jobs by effectively barring 20,000 imported goods, including French dresses and Argentine butter, other nations retaliated by raising their own barriers on U.S. products, effectively bringing global commerce to a halt.

[Now] In the United States, a move to greatly expand Buy American provisions as part of the $819 billion fiscal stimulus package has generated shock waves in other countries, with Canadian and European officials in particular rising up in protest. The provision, passed by the House on Wednesday, would mostly bar foreign steel and iron from the infrastructure projects laid out in the stimulus package. A Senate version still being considered goes further, requiring, with few exceptions, that all stimulus-funded projects use only American-made equipment and goods.

Now more than never Hazlitt is meaningful:

The effect of a tariff, therefore, is to change the structure of American production. It changes the number of occupations, the kind of occupations, and the relative size of one industry as compared with another. It makes the industries in which we are comparatively inefficient larger, and the industries in which we are comparatively efficient smaller. Its net effect, therefore, is to reduce American efficiency, as well as to reduce efficiency in the countries with which we would otherwise have traded more largely.

Creeping Smoot-Hawleyism

"Creeping Smoot-Hawleyism may deepen recession" By Martin Hutchinson:

Within three days of promising not to impose further tariffs, Russia and India raised them to protect domestic industries. Russia also tightened import quotas while the EU imposed anti-dumping duties. Creeping protectionism seriously threatens the global economy.

EU Food Policy

Celebrity Chef Jamie Oliver condemns and denounces the EU

"Ugly Vegetables and Fruit Again to be Sold in Europe!" by Doug Bandow:

Amazing. The European Union actually responded to criticism. About one-fifth of European produce has to be dumped because it doesn’t mean minimum EU standards, which have nothing to do with health. Under criticism for conducting a jihad against ugly veggies, the EU appears to be backing down–though the vote will be close.