Rough Trade

New at Reason: What do President Bush and the Miami demonstrators have in common? Brian Doherty puts on his Whig.

Comments

[Shane]

Bush certainly puts the "whig" back in Republican.

Tariffs, trade restrictions in exchange for votes.

All needs to do is come out in favor of the gold standard and his jounrey will be complete.

[Kevin Carson]

Many on the anti-globalist left have, indeed, pointed out the spuriousness of the "free trade" label. I've seen a number of left-wing academic critics of "corporate globalization" point to the role of the state in managing trade in the interests of TNCs.

Of course, most of them aren't consistent in this understanding, and don't draw the logical conclusion that REAL free trade is the worst enemy of big business. But they're probably as consistent in their support of free trade as the alleged "free traders" in the FTAA conference.