Various presidential candidates over the years have promised to reduce the U.S. trade deficit. Such arguments are based on the mistaken belief that trade deficits are bad. This paper explains why the United States is doomed to have trade deficits, and why it doesn't matter.The paper also...

Donald Trump has stated that he is in favor of free trade, but that he wants it to be fair. He has said that, if elected president, he would renegotiate NAFTA and other trade deals that he views as unfair to the American worker. When Ford recently announced that it would move a portion of its...

This paper discusses the pitfalls of trade protectionism and argues the case for free trade. An extensive bibliography on trade is also included, which has links to more than 100 articles on various aspect of trade

The North Carolina legislature passed a law that prohibits transgender individuals from using certain public toilets. The legislation has been controversial. Some entertainers have stated they will not hold concerts in North Carolina until the law is repealed. Some corporations have been...

In 1944, Martin Crowe, a Catholic priest, wrote a doctoral dissertation titled The Moral Obligation of Paying Just Taxes. His dissertation summarized and analyzed 500 years of theological and philosophical debate on this topic, much of which took place in Latin. Since Crowe's dissertation, not...

Outsourcing is an efficient way to reduce a company's costs and is often necessary to remain competitive. However, the practice has had its critics. This paper summarizes the outsourcing debate that has been going on in the United States and identifies and discusses some ethical issues that...

The issue of ethics seldom arises in discussions involving international trade. Talks generally revolve around a particular policy or how a particular policy affects this or that sector of the economy, industry, country or region. When ethical issues are discussed, it is usually from a...

Tax evasion has persistently carried severe penalties, although its intended deterrence effect is highly doubtful. We can safely say that it is based on the widely shared assumption among government officials that tax evasion is among the more serious crimes. In other words, the rationale of the...

Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850) was an economist and journalist. A member of the French Liberal School, he is best known for his free trade ideas and his philosophy of law. Mark Blaug ranks him as one of the 100 greatest economists before Keynes. Schumpeter called him a brilliant economic...

This article addresses the question of whether sanctions constitute violence in the broad sense of that term, and whether, and under what conditions, sanctions can be justified. The sanctions imposed against Iraq and Cuba are discussed as case studies and several ethical theories are applied to...