HomeUploadUpload DirectHotlinkRandomAbouttheme toggle
Expand

Obama and Free Trade: Q&A With Jagdish Bhagwati

Views:1030
@ReasonVids

Free trade is never more necessary - or vulnerable - than in times of economic distress. The current global downturn is no exception. Protectionist barriers have shot up all over the world, including the United States.

Last year, Congress killed a pilot program allowing Mexican trucks to transport goods across America and included Buy America provisions in the stimulus bill banning foreign steel and iron from infrastructure projects funded by the legislation.

More disturbingly, President Barack Obama, after chiding Congress for flirting with protectionism, initiated his own ill-advised affair by imposing a 35 percent tariff on cheap Chinese tires.

If the world manages to avoid an all-out trade war of the kind that helped trigger the Great Depression after the U.S. imposed the Smoot-Hawley tariffs in 1930, it will be in no small part due to the efforts of one man: Jagdish N. Bhagwati, an ebullient and irreverent 76-year-old professor of economics at Columbia University.

Bhagwati has done more than perhaps any other person alive to advance the cause of unfettered global trade. A native of India, Bhagwati immigrated to the United States in the late 60s after a brief stint on the Indian Planning Commission, where he learned first-hand the insanity of an economic approach that tried to modernize a country by cutting it off from world trade.

Since then, he has devoted his efforts, both in academia and in the popular press, to showing that there is no better way of improving the lot of both advanced countries and the developing world than through free trade. His path-breaking contributions to trade theory have put him on the short list for a Nobel Prize in economics.

Though a dogged trade advocate, Bhagwati is anything but dogmatic. He is a free spirit who draws intellectual inspiration from many disparate ideological camps. A self-avowed liberal, he is also something of a Gandhian social progressive, though Gandhi himself supported economic autarky. Bhagwati works with numerous Third World NGOs on a host of human rights issues. Yet he has no problem taking on these groups - or his famous student, Nobel laureate Paul Krugman - when they question the benefits of trade.

In fact, he devoted his 2004 magnum opus, In Defense of Globalization, to a point-by-point rebuttal of these critics. Although he doesnt vote Republican because he dislikes the partys nationalistic jingoism, he readily declares that Democrats pose a far bigger threat to international exchange than Republicans.

Last summer, Shikha Dalmia, a senior analyst at the Reason Foundation, interviewed Bhagwati in his New York office. For a transcript of that interview, go to http://reason.com.

This video interview was filmed on the same day and conducted by Dalmia, Reason Associate Editor Damon W. Root, and Reason.tv's Dan Hayes, who shot and edited the video. Approximately 6 minutes.

Go to Reason.tv for downloadabe iPod, HD, and audio versions. And subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube channel and receive automatic notifications when new material goes live.

reason.tv
,
reason.com
,
reason.org
,
reason magazine
,
reason foundation
,
free trade
,
globalization
,
jagdish bhagwati
,
barack obama
,
smoot hawley
,
dan hayes
,
damon w root
,
shikha dalmia
    Thumbnail for More Taxes or More Jobs? California Shows We Can't Have Both7:01
    More Taxes or More Jobs? California Shows We Can't Have Both
    ReasonVids
    891 views
    Thumbnail for Stossel: Fear vs. Risk (Why We Worry About the Wrong Things)4:00
    Stossel: Fear vs. Risk (Why We Worry About the Wrong Things)
    ReasonVids
    798 views
    Thumbnail for Watch out, we got a badass over here0:06
    Watch out, we got a badass over here
    voatcatbox
    534 views
    Thumbnail for The Story of Randy Bailey9:10
    The Story of Randy Bailey
    IJvids
    905 views
    Thumbnail for Sen. Mike Lee on Brett Kavanaugh, Trump's Tariffs, and Congressional Dysfunction22:27
    Sen. Mike Lee on Brett Kavanaugh, Trump's Tariffs, and Congressional Dysfunction
    ReasonVids
    908 views
    Thumbnail for Weed Country: Pot Grower Mike Boutin on Discovery Channel's Newest Reality Show6:49
    Weed Country: Pot Grower Mike Boutin on Discovery Channel's Newest Reality Show
    ReasonVids
    955 views
    Thumbnail for A Deadline Looms for Your Tax Preparer2:00
    A Deadline Looms for Your Tax Preparer
    IJvids
    897 views
    Thumbnail for Future Computers Will Be Radically Different (Analog Computing) | Veritasium21:42
    Future Computers Will Be Radically Different (Analog Computing) | Veritasium
    invidious
    361 views
    Thumbnail for Why 'Free College' Is a Terrible Idea7:35
    Why 'Free College' Is a Terrible Idea
    ReasonVids
    1037 views
    Thumbnail for Who We Talked to at the "One Nation" Rally: Rangel, Sharpton, Jackson & More5:03
    Who We Talked to at the "One Nation" Rally: Rangel, Sharpton, Jackson & More
    ReasonVids
    1027 views
    Thumbnail for A Gamer in Congress: Q&A with Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.)11:55
    A Gamer in Congress: Q&A with Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.)
    ReasonVids
    1005 views
    Thumbnail for NAKED LUNCH (1991)1:55:00
    NAKED LUNCH (1991)
    movies.topic
    736 views
    Thumbnail for Cutting Government Spending: An Interview with Puerto Rico Governor Luis Fortuño29:01
    Cutting Government Spending: An Interview with Puerto Rico Governor Luis Fortuño
    ReasonVids
    886 views
    Thumbnail for The Real Breaking Bad: How the Drug War Creates Collateral Damage6:48
    The Real Breaking Bad: How the Drug War Creates Collateral Damage
    ReasonVids
    1109 views
    Thumbnail for American Health Care Killed My Father: Q&A with David Goldhill29:45
    American Health Care Killed My Father: Q&A with David Goldhill
    ReasonVids
    995 views
    Thumbnail for Structural Integrity Doesn't Exist Here #shorts | AttorneyTom0:22
    Structural Integrity Doesn't Exist Here #shorts | AttorneyTom
    invidious
    292 views
    Thumbnail for Steve Forbes on the Flat Tax, Trump, and Election 201627:42
    Steve Forbes on the Flat Tax, Trump, and Election 2016
    ReasonVids
    1017 views
    Thumbnail for I dig it1:16
    I dig it
    AOUisgay
    592 views
    Thumbnail for The DD when it’s 5am and it’s time to drive everyone home(he’s also drunk): | FunnyMemeSpot0:23
    The DD when it’s 5am and it’s time to drive everyone home(he’s also drunk): | FunnyMemeSpot
    invidious
    124 views
    Thumbnail for Remy: Jim Carrey's Cold Dead Hand - A Rebuttal1:56
    Remy: Jim Carrey's Cold Dead Hand - A Rebuttal
    ReasonVids
    941 views
    Thumbnail for This Simulator Was Built to Stop Cops From Shooting Dogs2:53
    This Simulator Was Built to Stop Cops From Shooting Dogs
    ReasonVids
    987 views
    Thumbnail for Police Peddle "Stolen" iPhones, Arrest Buyers: Don't Cops Have Better Things to Do?!1:58
    Police Peddle "Stolen" iPhones, Arrest Buyers: Don't Cops Have Better Things to Do?!
    ReasonVids
    946 views
    Thumbnail for It's the same thing, right?0:23
    It's the same thing, right?
    bestofsaidit
    1425 views
    Thumbnail for TOOL- Jambi Non-Existent DVD7:43
    TOOL- Jambi Non-Existent DVD
    music.topic
    75 views
    Thumbnail for All Endings: Israel3:09
    All Endings: Israel
    AOU
    1373 views

points

Permalink
Reply
reason.tv
,
reason.com
,
reason.org
,
reason magazine
,
reason foundation
,
free trade
,
globalization
,
jagdish bhagwati
,
barack obama
,
smoot hawley
,
dan hayes
,
damon w root
,
shikha dalmia
TOS  •  Add Keywords  •  Donate  •   Analytics  •   DMCA  •   Puzzle