Tag Archives | protectionism

Jim_Lehrer_in_2011

PBS Newshour Host Jim Lehrer, R.I.P.

“Why is Mr. Bovard considered so out of it in other words?” PBS Newshour host Jim Lehrer asked the other panelists as a 1990 brawl on farm subsidies wrapped up.  Shocked, shocked that PBS considered me a radical…. Jim Lehrer passed away today.  He was a legend of Washington broadcast journalism – a gracious host […]

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Wikipedia, photo by Gerald Ford

The Battle in Seattle 20 Years Ago: Clinton’s Protectionist Legacy

Reasonable folks are naturally appalled at the trade rhetoric and trade wars coming out of the Trump White House.   Trump is sometimes portrayed as a shocking deviation from U.S. government support for free trade.  In reality, Bill Clinton’s trade policies shared many of the same protectionist follies.  Clinton’s showboating and legacy lust paved the way […]

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Idiot Policies Funnier in Portuguese?

Mises Brasil   [thanks for translating! Original English version is here; my 1987 Wall Street Journal oped is here] Alguns fatos cômicos (e patéticos) sobre o comércio internacional dentro do bloco soviético by James Bovard, November 12, 2019 Quando não estão matando, socialistas são uma comédia de erros Uma das maiores contribuições de Ludwig von […]

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George H.W. Bush’s Forgotten Debacles and Demagoguery

George H.W. Bush’s Forgotten Debacles and Demagoguery by James Bovard After former President George H.W. Bush died late last year, he was widely hailed as a great leader and patriot. At the National Cathedral funeral service, biographer Jon Meachan declared that Bush was a “twentieth-century Founding Father.” The minister of Bush’s church in Houston compared […]

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JPB fair trade fraud cover from AMZ

G.W.H. Bush Protectionist Follies, 1989-1992

Some folks thought I was too harsh on the late George H.W. Bush in my USA Today oped and on my Twitter comments. So here’s some of the articles I wrote on Bush’s protectionist debacles in the early 1990s. [The following piece was reprinted in two economics college textbooks] Wall Street Journal Wednesday, September 6, […]

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Bush Protection: The President and Free Trade (1992)

Some critics believe that Trump’s horrendous views on trade are a novelty. Here is a 1992 article I wrote for New Republic on the trade follies that permeated the administration of the late George H.W. Bush. The New Republic, January 20, 1992 HEADLINE: Bush protection: the president and free trade. by James Bovard Inviting Lee […]

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