Expert Praise:

Fletcher has written a powerful and refreshing critique of some cherished assumptions held by mainstream economists. It is uniformly insightful, often brilliant, and remarkably readable. Obama’s team should read it – and soon. —George C. Lodge, professor emeritus, Harvard Business School; author of Managing Globalization in the Age of Interdependence.

Ian Fletcher has laid out a powerful critique of so-called "free trade" theory, while also making the case for rethinking and reforming our current trade policies. Given the economic challenges we face in an increasingly treacherous global economy, this book provides essential tools and analysis for policy makers and activists. —John J. Sweeney, former President, AFL-CIO; author of America Needs a Raise: Fighting for Economic Security and Social Justice.

Most Americans live under the myth that "sound economics" says so- called "free trade" benefits all nations. Fletcher shows, in very readable prose, how the discipline is finally catching up with reality and common sense and is changing its mind on that matter. This book will be an essential guide to the emerging debate over the wisdom of "free trade" as a sound policy for our nation. —Patrick A. Mulloy, Commissioner, U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission; former Assistant Secretary of Commerce; former General Counsel, Senate Banking Committee.

If it strikes you that most of the arguments put forth for "free trade" are really just so much globaloney, you're right! Fletcher rips the mask from free trade myths, pointing out that economists increasingly reject the idea that our nation (or others) should base economic policy on such a dubious proposition. This book is a powerful tool for anyone who wants to help raise common sense to high places. —Jim Hightower, Best-selling author, national radio and newspaper commentator, and editor of The Hightower Lowdown.
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Reader Reviews:

A Passionate, Well Thought Out and Superbly Written, Plea for Reason and Sanity on Trade - Ron Baiman (Chicago, Illinois) This is an excellent book on a very important topic. The U.S. economy is hemorrhaging high quality export industry jobs at an astounding rate and a major causal factor is the mistaken and destructive "free trade" doctrine, the legitimating factor behind "free trade policy". Almost half of our manufacturing workforce has disappeared since 1987 and more than a third of large factories just since 2001. Not coincidentally 2001 is the year China joined the WTO. Our country is in a deep hole that desperately requires new thinking and new policies.

This book summarizes the theory, the policy, and the history of "free trade" and provides a well-argued alternative that is described with insight, clarity, and in a vibrant and captivating style. The book is divided into three parts: the Problem, the Real Economics of Trade, and the Solution. In the Problem section, Fletcher describes the US situation and goes over and tears apart the standard arguments for free trade and some of the wishful "remedies" to the U.S. trade problem such as more "education" and "post industrialism". In the second part, he provides a masterful analysis of core ideas of "comparative advantage" and why this does not justify free trade. The final section of the book provides a wealth of information on actual trade policy and real world trade that leads into a first rate summary of recent theoretical advances in "real trade" theory (as opposed to the largely ideological and mythological "free trade" doctrine). He than proposes and argues for a politically and economically practical alternative: a "natural strategic tariff" that would in many ways level the playing field between US and foreign exporters in the most important dynamic manufacturing and service export sectors.

This is an very important book that should be required reading for all policy decision makers and students of political economy. Our future may hang in the balance. Read this book! It is a breath of fresh air, even for "old hands" like myself who have been critiquing and reading critiques and alternatives to free trade economic policies for many years.

Sophisticated, Approachable & Passionate - Craig (USA) My recommendation for anyone concerned with trade, laborer and economist alike, is to read this book. Ian Fletcher has masterfully penned (or typed as the case may be) a well synthesized factual and theoretical critique of so-called free trade. Unlike other books of its kind, Ian Fletcher also provides a thought provoking blueprint for a realistic, that is, based in real life (scary for some economists) trade economic policy. I have travelled the globe extensively (40 countries) and have worked in Southeast Asia, mainland China and Europe, and have thus experienced the "other" side of the free trade coin. Suffice to say, the current system is not sustainable for America or our fellow nation states -- read this book and you will learn why.

At Long Last - James Case (Baltimore, MD) Paul Samuelson, second only to John Maynard Keynes in stature among twentieth century economists, once conceded that there are many more arguments against free international trade than for it. Yet he never publicized the contrarian arguments. Now, at long last, the job has been done for him. Ian Fletcher's new book FREE TRADE DOESN'T WORK: WHAT SHOULD REPLACE IT AND WHY? offers a compendium of such arguments.

Fletcher devotes but a single chapter to the (currently decisive)argument in favor of free trade. It is purely theoretical, consisting of little more than David Ricardo's long over-rated "principle of comparative advantage," reduced by modern scholarship to a mathematical theorem. The gory details may be found at www.FreeTradeMath.org. The mathematics don't make the theorem true. They only make it AS TRUE as the assumptions from which it is deduced. Fletcher lists seven "hidden assumptions" that appear both necessary and sufficient to invalidate Ricardo's conclusion that free trade is, at all times and in all places, advantageous to the practicing nations.

The beauty of Ricardo's principle is that it absolves policy makers of any need to determine the facts of the matter. If free trade policy were indeed universally advantageous, no nation would have any incentive to practice anything else. Fletcher devotes the bulk of his book to the many powerful incentives that now cause -- and have long caused -- most nations to adopt quite different policies. In the process, he debunks a multitude of claims traditionally made by the advocates of free trade:

• NAFTA was sold on the claim that it would create 200,000 US jobs before the ink was dry. In fact it promptly exported many more than that, while depressing wages in the ones left behind.
• The British Empire prospered after adopting free trade in 1860. In fact the already prosperous economy withered.
• Free trade is "tried and true." In fact, trade restrictions are as old and universal as trade itself. When tried, free trade has soon been abandonned as disadvantageous.

Fletcher's book should be read by absolutely everyone involved, or in danger of becoming involved, in the policy process.
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Author:

Ian Fletcher is an Adjunct Fellow at the San Francisco office of the U.S. Business and Industry Council, a Washington think tank founded in 1933. He was previously an economist in private practice, mostly serving hedge funds and private equity firms.  Educated at Columbia University and the University of Chicago, he lives in San Francisco with his wife and daughter.  Ian's Blog    Ian's Amazon Page    Ian's USBIC Page   Ian may be contacted at 225 Bush St., 16th Fl., San Francisco, CA 94014, ian.fletcher@usbic.net, 415.439.8377 (ofc), or 415.238.8145 (cell).

Blog:
http://www.freetradedoesntwork.com/blog1/

Articles:
http://www.freetradedoesntwork.com/articles.htm

Radio Interviews:
http://www.freetradedoesntwork.com/radio.htm

Excerpt:
http://www.freetradedoesntwork.com/Free_Trade_Doesnt_Work_excerpt.pdf