The Myth of Free Trade: The Pooring of America

by Ravi Batra

In a front-page story in the Wall Street Journal, Pat Buchanan named The Myth of Free Trades as one of the cornerstones of his protectionist economic policy. Written by Dr. Ravi Batra, bestselling economist and author of The Great Depression of 1990, The Myth of Free Trade throws down the gauntlet to economic orthodoxy and challenges the gospel of free trade. Dr. Batra states that "laissez-faire has wrecked U.S. industry and shattered the American dream."

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Indian-American economist, author, and professor at Southern Methodist University.

Batra is the author of six bestselling books of which "The Great Depression of 1990" reached #1 on the New York Bestsellers list in 1987.

In his works, Batra proposes an equitable distribution system known as Progressive Utilization Theory (PROUT) as a means to not only ensure material welfare but also to secure the ability of all to develop a full personality.

Reviews

[Brannon · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a terrible, terrible book. Read The Bastiat Collection before reading this and you will laugh out loud at the fallacies on nearly every page of this book. The only reason it got two stars instead of one is that it does have some interesting history. The author reviews some government reports that show that the average American income has been declining since 1973. It now takes two average incomes to pay for the average house rather than just one. That is true information. The author then asserts that free trade is responsible for this. He never considers the introduction of federal mortgage backing in the early seventies or the removal of the gold standard in the early seventies or the government deficits since that time. The author bases his definition of prosperity on the sales of industrial goods. What a narrow scope! The author never turns to standard statistical methods of eliminating or correlating variables either. He has no scientific method whatever this book. Don't bother with it. Read Bastiat instead (free electronically on mises.org). The articles about the great depression on mises.org are also interesting contrast to this book.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is good for a little bit of economic historical value. It is biased history though, but I still found it to be informative. The author did do a good job establishing the fact that the standard of living has declined since 1973, which I didn't believe before reading the book. However, his reason for the decline are very narrow and he fails to take into account a number of factors that likely contributed to the decline other than the lowering of tariff rates. Such as the fact that the U.S. dropped the gold standard and began printing more money, and the creation of housing lenders such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as other factors that could easily contribute to a decline in the standard of living.

After the first few chapters the author becomes more and more narrow in his historical accounts. He focuses solely on tariffs and trade and its effect on the economy, ignoring all other factors. He attributes manufacturing and expansion to high tariffs and assumes that innovation would not have occurred otherwise.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is truly the go-to compendium of statistics and history of free trade policy in America. The early chapters were a little stat-heavy albeit interesting, and the ensuing sections were very intriguing. Batra clearly lines out his research and formulates his hypotheses. Even though this work was written in the early '90s, trade statistics to the present continue to bear out the validity of his viewpoint. As we near a vote on the TPP, his suggestions for competitive protectionism through the implementation of higher tariffs on imports in certain critical sectors, along with fostering greater domestic competition should be strongly considered as viable possibilities to reverse the extremely deleterious effects of a free trade economy that's been solidly in place since the early '70's. A must-read for anyone interested in the impact of free trade policy on the middle class with regard to job and wage security, environmental concerns, and the maintenance and preservation of a high quality standard of living.