Wendy Sherman: “How does America get saddled with these bad trade deals? If we look at our free trade agreements, we see a 425 percent…”

“How does America get saddled with these bad trade deals? If we look at our free trade agreements, we see a 425 percent increase in our trade deficit with those FTA countries. You get that statistic if you include NAFTA, which, of course, is the granddaddy of all of our free trade deals, and that doesn't even count our worst deal, which was granting most favored nation status to China. So how do we end up with such bad deals? First, the elites convince themselves that it is good for the country. They do this because they love the theory of the economic textbook and don't feel comfortable looking at the practice of how business actually works. Second, the elites benefit from these deals. These deals help economists and Wall Street and attorneys, so they convince themselves that they are good for the country as a whole and create a subcultural echo chamber in which it is a subcultural norm that all smart people realize that these are good trade deals. In having convinced themselves to support these deals, they use a combination of condescension, false appeals to patriotism, and sneaky tactics to saddle the American people with these trade deals. {time} 1045 Take a look at the effect on working families. America needs a raise. To get it, we need a severe labor shortage. We would have millions of additional jobs, a desperate labor shortage, if only we had balanced trade with the world. Let's look at TPP and its inclusion of Vietnam.…”