Is all the NAFTA-bashing campaign rhetoric driving public sentiment, or is public sentiment pushing the candidates to be more anti-trade? It’s impossible to tell, but the Pew Research Center finds that public support for free-trade agreements is dropping sharply. Last month,…

As one grocery shopper told a Post-Dispatch reporter recently, “Things have gotten really expensive” at the supermarket. Food prices rose 4.9 percent last year, partly because of our thirst for corn-based ethanol and partly because of rising demand around the…

Russell Roberts, a former St. Louisan who now teaches economics at George Washington University, is worried about a resurgence of mercantilism. He writes in an article on Foreign Policy magazine’s Web site:

But when you hear U.S. presidential candidates start to…

Bill Poole, president of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, said in a speech over the weekend that he is troubled  by the direction of U.S. trade policy.

After mentioning the breakdown in World Trade Organization talks, the expiration of U.S.…