Cato Institute: on Free Trade

Cato Institute: Ex-im bank replaces market risk with bureaucrats' decisions

It turns out that for nearly every Ex-Im financing authorization that might advance the fortunes of a single US company, there is at least one US industry--and often dozens or scores of industries--whose firms are put at a competitive disadvantage because supply is being diverted, market power is being shifted, and the cost of capital is being lowered for their foreign competition. These are the unseen consequences--the collateral damage--of Ex-Im's mission.

Cato Institute: Countervailing duties mean higher prices on solar panels

It's not that Congress woke up one morning and agreed to simultaneously promote and deter U.S. solar energy consumption. But that's what Washington--with its meddling ethos and self-righteous politicians--has wrought: policies working at cross-purposes.

Cato Institute: Duties on Chinese tires could unleash protectionist backlash

USW and the unions feel that they have earned the president's support. The president is presumed to owe Big Labor for his election last November. Will the president do what is overwhelmingly in the best interest of the country? Or will he do what he thinks is best for himself politically? The president should reject the recommendations of the USITC & deny import restrictions altogether. A decision to reject trade restraints in the tires case would be reassuring to a world that is struggling to grow out of recession. The costs of any protectionism under these circumstances could unleash a protectionist backlash in the US & around the world. It would be far less costly for the president to reject trade restraints altogether.