Comments for Protectionist rhetoric debunked at http://www.adamsmith.org , comment 1 to 2 out of 2 comments http://www.adamsmith.org Sat, 30 Aug 2008 06:09:15 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/globalization/protectionist-rhetoric-debunked-200805071341/#comment-190 "Capital is crossing borders worldwide" It is time that people stopped saying this! If I sell my shares in a Malaysian tin mine for £1m and buy myself a block of flats in Nevada, how much capital has crossed a border? Answer = none. The tin mine is still in Malaysia producing tin and the block of flats is still in Nevada being rented out to Nevadans. 'Capital' in the sense of Adam Smith's 'stocks' is pretty much immobile. (Even social capital is not that mobile, very few people in % terms move abroad each year and many of those come back sooner or later). All that has happened is that ownership has changed. Somebody somewhere was more optimistic about tin mining than I am and somebody somewhere else was more pessimistic than I am about the US property market. Does this make the slightest difference to anything? At the margin, maybe yes, but basically no. - Mark Wadsworth Thu, 08 May 2008 13:21:40 +0100 http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/globalization/protectionist-rhetoric-debunked-200805071341/#comment-185 The Western Industrial countries should stop protecting their economies, in particular Agriculture which is keeping sub saharan Africa in abject poverty. - Richard Calhoun Wed, 07 May 2008 21:18:01 +0100