[dailo10]

Actually, the dirty secret amongs development economists is that protectionism works when you're trying to establish yourself in an industry. If you look at a number of successful developing countries, they first created protectionist policies to nurture homegrown companies. Once those companies matured and acquired skills/knowledge, they slowly remove those policies to compete on a global level.

Of course, it's different for a developed country like the U.S. But I object to those who blithely proclaim that free trade is the best solution. Even when you look at the U.S., freer trade has led to clear winners and losers -- the winners being bigger profits for corporations, and the losers being those who have lost their jobs.

I'm not sure what a better solution looks like, but increasing globalization forces us to grapple with some very real issues and growing inequality.