>[Tobin supports free trade, the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO, etc....]
>Tobin, who was awarded the 1981 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, told
>Der Spiegel that his tax likely had ``no chance'' of becoming
>reality - because ``the important people on the international finance
>scene are against it.''
By noticing that only "the important people" have input, Tobin
recognizes implicitly that "the international finance scene" is not
controlled democratically. Yet he supports the "scene" because it
institutionalizes what he calls "free trade." It is interesting how
"free trade" has made so many people poor and thus less free in their
choices. That is because the free trade surplus is not applied to
compensating those victimized by it. The compensation principle serves
as free trade's moral justification. The lack of compensation today
might be attributed to a lack of democracy in domestic governance, but
then we seem to be getting back to the original issue, again,
democracy.
I found the following site about the compensation principle of free
trade.
http://internationalecon.com/v1.0/ch120/120c030.html
The author notes that compensating free trade losers is usually
impossible in practice. Consequently, the author finds that resistance
to liberalization is rational by those who expect to lose. So much for
irrational opposition to free trade. Opposition is in fact based on
rational economic principles. In willful ignorance of this rational
calculation, Tobin blindly supports free trade.
Should we expect more of our Nobel Prize winners?
Andrew Hagen
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
