Fair Trade Fraud Epigrams & IHS Graphic

jpb FTF quote from IHS 1526434_10152483736452796_197640554_n

This sentence looks better in this IHS graphic than it did when I wrote it on a greenish flickering computer screen some 20 years ago.

Here is the link to the web page for Fair Trade Fraud, which first came out in 1991. And here are some other epigrams from that book:

“Fair trade” is a moral delusion that could be leading to an economic catastrophe.

The U.S. government has created a trade lynch law that can convict foreign companies almost regardless of how they operate.

American trade negotiators have exerted far more effort to close the U.S. market than to open foreign markets.

Congressmen’s solution to the problem of unfair foreigners is almost always to increase their own power over what Americans are allowed to buy

The myth of fair trade is that politicians and bureaucrats are fairer than markets – that government coercion and restriction can create a fairer result than voluntary agreement – and that prosperity is best achieved by arbitrary political manipulation, rather than allowing each individual and company to pursue their own interest.

Our great grandchildren may look back at the trade wars of the twentieth century with the same contempt that many people today look at the religious wars of the seventeenth century – as a senseless conflict over issues that grown men should not fight about.
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6 Responses to Fair Trade Fraud Epigrams & IHS Graphic

  1. Tom Blanton December 16, 2013 at 6:22 pm #

    The best thing about the term “fair trade” is that you immediately know it is not “free trade”.

    The worst thing about the term “free trade” is that it has become synonymous with what is
    actually government managed trade, which includes “fair trade”.

    I suppose we will see actual free trade when we actually have free markets. I expect this
    to occur when hell freezes over – that should be right after the next ice age.

    As far as the quote in the IHS graphic, I suspect there are a number of people that would
    disagree with you: socialists, progressives, fascists, conservatives, communists, sociopaths,
    most CEOs, most politicians and anyone else who stands to increase profits (or power) through government intervention into the economy.

    A good epigram for that crowd would be:

    “All’s fair in love, war and lining my pockets”

  2. Jim December 17, 2013 at 9:13 am #

    Tom, so there would not quite be 100% agreement with the quote. But at least the “free silver” folks might not object.

    Your epigram is zippety – perhaps soon to star in its own graphic?

  3. Dirk Sabin December 19, 2013 at 3:46 pm #

    I take umbrage at any mention of” clenched Peacock Buttocks” in a public forum

    But, we do have to be open to cultural differences.

    • Jim December 19, 2013 at 3:51 pm #

      Personally, I’ve always been on the lookout for anti-beard bias.