Defending Free Trade

The Economist has an editorial defending NAFTA - and the need for the US (and presidential candidates) to drop NAFTA bashing. (HT: The Foundry).

On a related front, Mark Perry has a chart showing industrial output in the US growing 450% from 1960-2007, but the number of manufacturing jobs staying the same.

Of course Pennsylvania (along with Ohio and Michigan) continues to lose manufacturing jobs -not to China and Mexico, but mostly to other states.

Update: Greg Mankiw in the New York Times on the political rhetoric around free trade vs. the economic reality.