Conservatives Losing Faith In The Free Market

With columns like this: Magazine concedes globalism is a problem, I can see why many libertarians in the blogosphere have seriously considered a libertarian alliance with the left. After all, if Republicans can't be counted on to support the free market, then I'm not sure if there are many reasons left for libertarians to consider voting for a Republican.

What's interesting here is the way electoral politics are worked into the argument. Apparently, Republicans should embrace the left's notion of "Fair Trade," not because it's a coherent theory but because Democrats won on the idea in the mid-term elections.

And then there are the multitude of examples that supposedly make the case against free trade. Case-in-point would be the issue raised in the comments about the poorest countries in the world not benefiting from free trade. It doesn't take an economist to explain that one. Poorest countries don't benefit from free trade because we don't have a true system of global free trade. Agricultural tariffs and subsidies distort the market for the very goods that poor countries would otherwise be capable of selling to the rest of the world.

Odd isn't it, how many of the arguments against free trade use examples in which laws are actually preventing people from receiving the benefits of the free market.