[jegoodwin3]

> I would be surprised if one in ten readers of HN thinks international free trade can hurt an economy: it's a nearly universally assumed good amongst the intelligentsia.

I'm not sure about the statistics of HN readers, however the arguments are more complicated now than when Krugman wrote the article in 1996. See Samuelson's 2004 criticism of free trade, revisiting his early positive results.

Samuelson, Paul A. (2004): Where Ricardo and Mill Rebut and Confirm Arguments of Mainstream Economists Against Globalization, in: Journal of Economic Perspectives, Volume 18, Number 3, pp. 161-180

cited in : http://www.dbresearch.com/PROD/DBR_INTERNET_EN-PROD/PROD0000...

Samuelson's paper was a big deal when it came out, even in the mainstream press.

The paper itself: https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/SamuelsonJE...