How Economic Gobbledygook Divides Us
<p><pre><code>  “It’s not free trade, it’s stupid trade,” Donald Trump
  has said during his presidential campaign — a slogan
  that contradicts every tenet of mainstream economics, as
  well as a quarter of a millennium of accumulated
  economic data. [...] if you live in a one-industry town
  and the main workplace has closed, you are unlikely to
  agree with the professional consensus instead of your
  own lived reality of loss and decline.
</code></pre>
I&#x27;m going to be honest: When it comes to economics, I&#x27;ve read several popular books, and I know what consensus to parrot to sound well informed (Free trade is a net benefit! Ricardian comparative advantage!) but the truth is I don&#x27;t really &#x2F;understand&#x2F; any of that. Not enough to honestly claim I&#x27;m convinced by it.<p>I&#x27;m basically going with what the experts seem to say. If I was living in the Soviet Union I&#x27;m sure I&#x27;d be parroting the views of a different set of experts and saying completely different things with exactly the same conviction.