Top Resources

Peter Zeihan, Agriculture After Globalization. Dairy West, Dec 16, 2020. A video presentation by geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan to dairy industry professionals. Zeihan highlights why global trade is in decline largely because it was a construct of the U.S. post-WWII. Zeihan discusses cattle-specific factors between the U.S. and New Zealand, including land quality, labor, and climate change. Zeihan argues that Mexico’s population demographics indicate that their migration is unlikely to meet the needs of U.S. dairy farmers, and border crossing will decline just because of Mexico’s aging population; Central American migration is likely to be insufficient and politically difficult; Zeihan surprisingly suggests that the dairy industry lobby the State Department for war refugees as labor. This history and these stats highlight the importance of NAFTA and labor migration.

Lawrence Mishel, The Trump Trade Scam. Economic Policy Institute, Jun 29, 2016.

Daniel Griswold, Globalization Isn't Killing Factory Jobs. Trade is Actually Why Manufacturing is Up 40%. Los Angeles Times, Aug 1, 2016.  argues technology, not trade, is responsible for job loss

Robert Reich, Trump's Trickle-Down Populism. Huffington Post, Dec 4, 2016.

Arthur Delaney, Donald Trump Hasn’t Scared American Companies Out Of Ditching U.S. Workers. Huffington Post, Aug 30, 2018.

Annie Lowrey, Wages Are Low and Workers Are Scarce. Wait, What? The Atlantic, Sep 19, 2018.

Robert E. Scott, The State of American Manufacturing: The Failure of Trump's Trade and Economic Policies. Economic Policy Institute, Feb 5, 2019.

American Compass, Conservatives Should Ensure Workers a Seat at the Table. American Compass, Sep 6, 2020.

Nitasha Tiku, India’s Engineers Have Thrived in Silicon Valley. So Has Its Caste System.. Washington Post, Oct 27, 2020.  “Engineers and advocates of the lowest-ranked castes say that tech companies don’t understand caste bias and haven’t explicitly prohibited caste-based discrimination.”

Saagar Enjeti, Ford Lied To Union Workers, Moving Plant From Ohio To Mexico. Rising | The Hill, Mar 19, 2021.

Richard Wolff, Economic Update: China & Inflation: Real Analyses, Not BS. Democracy at Work, Nov 1, 2021.  argues that employers decide whether increases in the monetary supply translate into inflation or increased output-supply; argues that restrictive US immigration policy is causing a shortage of low-wage workers, which is causing employers to raise prices, because they must pay higher wages

Jiwon Choi, Ilyana Kuziemko, Ebonya L. Washington, and Gavin Wright, Local Economic and Political Effects of Trade Deals: Evidence from NAFTA. NBER, Nov 2021.  Points out that the neoliberal agenda of free trade without an industrial policy devastated American Rustbelt areas, and turned white voters towards Trump in 2016. See commentary by Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, 28 Years Of NAFTA: How It Destroyed Dems, Elected Trump. Breaking Points, Dec 9, 2021.

Phelim Kine, China Joined Rules-Based Trading System — Then Broke the Rules. Politico, Dec 9, 2021. “Four U.S. trade officials who helped plan and negotiate U.S. normalization of trade ties with China reflect what the 20 years of China's entry into WTO have meant.”

CNBC, Is Obamacare Fueling The Great Resignation?  CNBC, Jan 31, 2022.  Since workers don’t need their employer to provide health care, more workers feel free to not return to work.

Haley Byrd Witt, How the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Became Law.  The Dispatch, Jun 20, 2022.  A five part series examining the creation and passage of this law.  The Smoot-Hawley Tariff is supposed to protect U.S. markets from slave-labor products, because cheap labor products undermine ethical labor.

Deutsche Welle, The Hidden Cost of Orange Juice.  Deutsche Welle Documentary, Sep 12, 2022.  Brazil is the world’s top supplier of orange juice, but with poor working conditions for workers.  

Peter Zeihan, Uncovering Japan's Most Shocking Secret.  Geopolitics in Conflict, Apr 29, 2023.  Demographic decline for five decades and cost of urban living.  Japanese companies since the 1900s used “desourcing” of building where they sell, which relied on U.S. maritime security.

CNBC, How Temu Makes Money From $10 Smartwatches From China.  CNBC, Aug 14, 2023.  Temu sells slave-made products from China.  Temu threads viruses into the Temu app to prevent you from deleting the app.  

Emily Jashinsky, Emily Spars With Beto O'Rourke On Immigration, Biden, Trump. Counterpoints | Breaking Points, May 17, 2024. Emily and Beto agree that US foreign policy needs to correct for past US actions towards Latin America.

Warwick J. McKibbin, Megan Hogan, and Marcus Noland, The International Economic Implications of a Second Trump Presidency. Peterson Institute for International Economics, Sep 2024.

CNBC, How China Uses Mexico To Avoid U.S. Tariffs. CNBC, Oct 25, 2024. This will be a major oversight by any tariff strategy.

Oren Cass, Making the Case for Trump’s Tariffs. Amanpour and Company, Nov 22, 2024. Cass critiques libertarian free trade, mostly by also criticizing other governments for subsidizing or protecting their companies.