Categories: OLD Media Moves

WaPo columnist confused about free trade

Dean Baker, writing on his blog about economics reporting, argues that Washington Post columnist Sebastian Mallaby is confused when writing about free trade.

Baker wrote, “He criticizes the suggestion by my former boss, Lawrence Mishel, and Harvard economist Dani Rodrick, that it might be desirable to have a ‘strategic pause’ before we rush ahead with new trade agreements. Mishel and Rodrick argue that such a pause might be desirable because it would allow us to improve the safety net to ensure that the losers from trade are protected.

“Mr. Mallaby argues that the problem with such an approach is that other countries will continue to move ahead with trade deals, from which the United States will be excluded. Okay, what does trade theory say about this scenario? Well, according to most trade models, if other countries work out deals that make their economies stronger, while the U.S. is sitting on the sidelines, then the United States is better off than if they didn’t work out deals. In general, standard trade implies that the United States economy is helped by anything that helps the economies of our trading partners.

“In other words, if Mallaby understood his own religion better, he would know that he is actually weakening the argument against a ‘strategic pause.'”

Read more here.Â

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.

Next Airline complaints down; Network complaints about airlines up »

Previous « SABEW Best in Business award winners named

View Comments

CJ says:
February 1, 2021 at 11:58 pm
Here I am commenting years later, but I am doing research into Mallaby after his recent labelling of naked shortsellers in the GME saga "the good guys." It seems his incompetence in defining free trade continues into 2021.