> Those 'laws' are untainted by contact with reality. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_advantage: " ... none of the world's most successful trading regions, including Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and now mainland China, reached their current status by adopting neoliberal trading rules."
What a gross way to misrepresent that article, the source of that quote, and the established consensus. That quote is not "from Wikipedia" any more than it is from yourself (or from HN for that matter) just because you happened to copy-paste it here. That quote is from one critic whom Wikipedia happens to cite just for the sake of illustrating what counterclaims exist out there.
If you really want to quote Wikipedia, why not quote the couple paragraphs before, which actually address what the consensus is:
Several arguments have been advanced against using comparative advantage as a justification for advocating free trade, and they have gained an audience among economists. [...] However, the overwhelming consensus of the economics profession remains that while these arguments are theoretically valid under certain assumptions, these assumptions do not usually hold and should not be used to guide trade policy. Gregory Mankiw, chairman of the Harvard Economics Department, has said: ″Few propositions command as much consensus among professional economists as that open world trade increases economic growth and raises living standards.″
Now your quote doesn't look so much like an established fact, does it?
The quote may be from one critic, but it talks about fact, not 'economic consensus'. Are you saying those countries did reach their current status with neoliberal trading rules?
Noted, but that quote doesn't imply economic consensus or opinion, and it is not an argument - it is a dry statement of fact. So I don't think I misrepresented anything.
What a gross way to misrepresent that article, the source of that quote, and the established consensus. That quote is not "from Wikipedia" any more than it is from yourself (or from HN for that matter) just because you happened to copy-paste it here. That quote is from one critic whom Wikipedia happens to cite just for the sake of illustrating what counterclaims exist out there.
If you really want to quote Wikipedia, why not quote the couple paragraphs before, which actually address what the consensus is:
Several arguments have been advanced against using comparative advantage as a justification for advocating free trade, and they have gained an audience among economists. [...] However, the overwhelming consensus of the economics profession remains that while these arguments are theoretically valid under certain assumptions, these assumptions do not usually hold and should not be used to guide trade policy. Gregory Mankiw, chairman of the Harvard Economics Department, has said: ″Few propositions command as much consensus among professional economists as that open world trade increases economic growth and raises living standards.″
Now your quote doesn't look so much like an established fact, does it?