Obama’s Trade Policy Shows the Audacity of Ignorance

The most important takeaway from David Nakamura’s detailedWashington Post piece on President Obama and trade policy is that the president’s evolving views have been shaped by arrogance as well as ignorance. Worse economic news can scarcely be imagined, since Congress is gearing up to decide whether to grant him a blank check (‘fast track’ authority) for negotiating new deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Nakamura’s reporting confirms an observation I made back in 2008when then-Senator Obama was first running for President: He knew nothing important about trade issues and cared less. The best evidence for the former was his constant harping on what he thought were NAFTA’s defects at a time when China had completely eclipsed Mexico as a policy concern. The best evidence for the latter was his website’s almost perfunctory treatment of the subject (especially in contrast to the detailed analysis offered on the internet by one Hillary Clinton).
Fast forward to his years in office, and we see:

This post was published at Wall Street Examiner on April 16, 2015.