I work for a labor union in the aerospace industry. We are 100% in favor of trade. We make products the rest of the world wants to buy.

With increased trade we expect more prosperity. Instead, we see the American economy de-industrializing and job security at historic lows. So,...

Let's look at public policies for economic development that help us recover from the recession.

In one view of economic development, the role of government is to "make business succeed." In this view, government should get out of the way and let markets find the most efficient outcome....

A great line in the Disney pirate movie was where Geoffrey Rush (as Captain Barbossa) explained the Code of the Pirates this way, to Keira Knightley (as Elizabeth Swann),

"... the Code is more what you'd call 'guidelines' really, than actual rules."

He was a pirate, after all.

Public attitudes toward workers send a weird mixed message lately. We are busy ripping out support for wages and benefits, while simultaneously asking why the recovery is going badly. Diane Ravitch's bitter joke captures the spirit of this contradiction: "It reminds me of an old Soviet joke where...

I am 100% in favor of trade policies that raise our standard of living.

I oppose trade policies that deindustrialize America, erode the middle class and compromise long-term prosperity. Case in point: I oppose the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement.

For some reason, trade debates start with the false choice...

Last spring, a congressional staffer introduced me to a new expression. She said, "Our job is to make business succeed."

My message to her had been that careers in science and technology were threatened as our economy de-industrialized. As manufacturing work goes to low-wage countries, the engineering and R&D...

When I was young, the purpose of public policy was to raise our standard of living. Not so much, anymore. Now, public policy is designed to make business succeed, or be "competitive."

Our current policies are particularly well-crafted to the goal of making large multinational businesses succeed. Our policies...

In past recessions, we used the term "priming the pump" as shorthand for economic stimulus. Hand-pumps are no longer part of our daily experience, so the comparison is lost.

It's just as well. The whole "pump-priming" metaphor is misguided. When you prime a pump, you assume that the pump...

Support for free trade is declining for good reason. Free trade came with a promise of prosperity. However, after 20 years of experience, we have structural trade deficits and an economy that cannot create jobs.

What went...

As the economy struggles, we are told that education will be the key to renewed prosperity. So, I was quite surprised to read in the New York Times about a mother who was accused of over-investing in her daughter's college education, by borrowing to send her to NYU....

One popular position on trade is to "level the playing field."

I'm not always sure what that means, but I'm in favor of it.

Any intention to level the playing field starts with a simple realization -- that rules of trade can favor one outcome over another....

We all want to create jobs and encourage economic recovery. We now have over 30 years of experience with trickle-down policies. What has worked, and what needs change?

For the last few decades, the basic idea was to "make industry succeed." That principle drives our policies in trade, education, R&D,...

Markets are powerful and efficient. Markets fail.

Engineers study failure. When we design a structure or a system, it is our professional obligation to account for known failure mechanisms, and produce a robust, practical, safe design. We don't rely on invisible hands.

Economists will quietly and reluctantly acknowledge several...

Trade is good; all trade is good; more trade is better than less trade; maximum possible trade. This rhetorical progression has propelled policy discussion about US trade policy for at least two decades.

Ian Fletcher's new book, Free Trade Doesn't Work:
What Should Replace It and Why,...