This summer something surprising happened in the Bucknell Economics Department. No, most professors are still proudly sporting their faded Kerry-Edwards bumper stickers. But two professors did publicly support free trade policies.
Recently, The Wall Street Journal ran a petition signed by 1,028 economists from across the country opposing protectionist, anti-Chinese measures being considered by Congress. The signatories included two Bucknell economics professors, Thomas Kinnaman and Christopher Magee. Four Nobel laureates and two former BUCC speakers, including Walter Williams and Donald Boudreaux of George Mason’s Economics Department, also signed the petition.
The petition was created in response to calls by many politicians for retaliatory trade policies to punish China for “cheating on trade.” China has kept its currency, the yuan, at a fixed rate below market value. Politicians believe this steals American jobs by causing outsourcing and increases America’s trade deficit.
This is not the first time economists have united against protectionist trade policies. A similar petition appeared in The New York Times in 1930 to protest the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act passed under the Hoover administration.
The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act implemented the highest US tariffs of the twentieth century and triggered protectionist policies from Canada, Spain, Italy, Great Britain, France, and Switzerland. These responses are blamed for worsening the Great Depression.
Unfortunately, many politicians have not learned from the lessons of history and insist on tariffs against China.
The good news, however, is that two Bucknell economists – and others like them – are standing up and voicing support for free trade policies. Professor Magee believes tariffs would not be worth any perceived gains from trade. When contacted by The Counterweight, Professor Magee commented: “If the US puts higher tariffs on their goods it would certainly lead to worse relations between the countries, so the US might get less cooperation on things China can help us with such as negotiations with North Korea, information about terrorist groups, et cetera.”
He continued, “We have a large trade deficit with China, but I don't think that should affect our policies. We have large trade surpluses with some other countries and we clearly do not want them to slap high tariffs on our products just because we happen to produce a lot of the goods that they want to buy.”
Professor Magee’s comments raise an important point, namely, trade deficits between the United States and China are not necessarily a problem.
As Walter Williams pointed out in a recent article, nobody complains about a trade deficit between themselves and the Apple Corporation. Consumers enjoy their iPods more than they enjoy their money, just as Americans enjoy cheap goods provided by the Chinese. Trade deficits are countered by Americans purchasing goods they value more than what they spent. Americans are not suffering just because the other side of the equation is a foreign country.
These two Bucknell professors had the sense to stand up to politicians and defend free trade policies. This is an important step for our economics department, which has long been dominated by leftist academics.
This support for free trade policies signals hope for a greater diversity of opinions within the department and its courses. Intellectual diversity is central to strong academic debate and has been missing from Coleman Hall for many years.
The answer to the lack of intellectual diversity within the economics department is not hiring more from one political party or less from another but a more balanced curriculum and a staff open to a broad range of ideas. Karl Marx may still be a required part of the curriculum, but there are at least two members of the department who believe deeply in free trade. Their signing of the petition this summer signals a change from many of the socialist lines the department has supported for many years.
The BUCC and The Counterweight are proud that Professors Kinnaman and Magee are trying to instill some sense into our lawmakers. The department and its members deserve credit for fostering intellectual diversity through these beliefs. There may still be too much Karl Marx in the department for our liking, but we are glad these professors are members of Bucknell’s Economics Department.