Alan S. Blinder Quotes

One by one, trade and investment barriers will continue to be swept away by globalization, like leaves on an autumn day…The new challenge will be less to regulate relations among national economies, than to establish the rules and structures of a transnational economy.

It will be found, that as some particular Men in a Town grow richer, and thrive better than others; so also do Nations, who by Trade serving the occasions of their Neighbors, supply themselves with what they have occasion for from abroad; which done, the rest is laid up, and is Silver, Gold, etc. for as I said, these being commutable for everything, and of small bulk, are still preferr'd to be laid up, till occasion shall call them out to supply other Necessaries wanted.

We're a trading nation. We need to have trade, we rely on it, a vast proportion of our jobs in our country rely on trade agreements.

Offshoring is only the latest manifestation of the gains from trade that economists have talked about at least since Adam Smith… More things are tradable than were tradable in the past, and that’s a good thing.

Free trade is a two way street.

By definition, by reducing our trade deficit we will be hurting consumers. Consumers are always better off with a trade deficit.

The popular notion is that imports are bad and exports are good.

We are the greatest trading country in the world because we have the greatest exportation of the growth and product of our land and of the manufacture and labor of our people; and the greatest importation and consumption of the growth, product, and manufactures of other countries from abroad, of any nation in the world.

Let’s export American products, not American jobs.

Nations finding the Export of Money or Bullion to pay the ballance due by Trade, a loss of so much Riches, and very hurtful to Trade, might have discharg'd the Import of such Goods as the People could best want; Or laid a Duty on them, such as might have lessen'd their Consumption: They might have given encouragement to Industry, whereby the Product would have been encreas'd and improv'd, or discourag'd extravagant Consumption, whereby the Overplus to Export would have been greater; Any one of these Methods would have brought Trade and Exchange equal

If a foreign country can supply us with a commodity cheaper than we ourselves can make it, better buy it of them with some part of the produce of our own industry, employed in a way in which we have some advantage.

Our international trade relations, though vastly important, are in point of time and necessity, secondary to the establishment of a sound national economy. I favor as a practical policy the putting of first things first.

The largest annual U.S. trade deficits since 1980 have been accompanied by the largest annual job-creation numbers in recent memory. The reason is simple: stronger economies tend to have stronger currencies, and the increased economic activities in these stronger economies and exchange-rate differentials lead inevitably to trade deficits

The laws of trade must be the great teacher.

Mexican exports worldwide benefit the U.S. economy because of their high percentage of U. S. content.

We have at last awakened to the realization that foreign and domestic trade are not in separate water-tight compartments--that they flow through the same pipes and seek a common level. We cannot live by ourselves, shut off from the balance of the world, without working harm to our economic system that would require many years for repair.

The benefits of trade diffuse across the economy, but the cost of trade are concentrated.

A trade war is a conflict in which each side uses most of its ammunition to shoot itself in the foot.

The European conflict shall not be continued by economic war after the military operations have ceased. British policy shall be directed toward promoting free commercial intercourse between all nations …

China must voluntarily cut back on exports to America otherwise American politics will become unmanageable.

International trade is not a zero-sum game.

There is no way out of playing by the rules of the international economy if you wish to be a part of it.

Unfair foreign trade practices are not isolated acts.

More and more we must build our foreign policy around commerce.

May our exports be so great, and our imports so small, that the balance of trade may be in our favor.