Trade

Economies are ranked on their ease of doing business, from 1–190.

An article from the Yale Law Review by John Maynard Keynes

Quick recap on the main economic justifications/reasons for countries to trade with one another for greater economic prosperity.

Scratch almost any economist and you will find someone who is firmly committed to free trade and, most likely, someone who largely agrees with his colleagues who signed a 2006 Open Letter to President Bush and Congress organized by the Independent Institute--for whom I serve as a Senior Research Fellow--arguing that immigration, even of low-skill workers, is a net boon to the US economy.

Five reporters stumbled on what seems like a basic question: What is money? The unsettling answer they found: Money is fiction.

You'll have the opportunity to learn more about fundamental ideas such as comparative advantage, increasing returns to scale, factor endowments, and arbitrage across borders. The consequences we discuss include the effects of offshoring, how trade has shaped the economies of China, Mexico, and Korea, when foreign direct investment is desirable, and the history of free trade and tariffs, among other topics.

In this video, Paul Solman discusses the benefits of trade.

A blog post on the division of labor, by Mike Munger.

On a timeline of human history, the recent rise in standards of living resembles a hockey stick -- flatlining for all of human history and then skyrocketing in just the last few centuries.

How did the economy get started? Meet Ugg, Glugg and Tugg, three enterprising cave men who accidentally invented trade, marketing and the base elements of the modern market economy.