Protectionism good Winterspeak started off as a free-trade and economics blog, before focusing on law, economics, and technology. These worlds collided today as Congressional disaster and wholly-owned subsidiary of Disney, Inc, Ernest F. Hollings posts a protectionist screed in the NY Times. Better known for trying to cripple all technological innovation, Hollings' today trots out the usual hackneyed protectionist argument saying that protecting workers helps the country (which ignores, as usual, the larger social loss on consumers brought on by higher prices). "Economics in One Lesson" is a well written book that explains why this thinking is dead wrong (it's 50th Anniversary Edition just came out, which also shows how old Hollings' ignorance is).

I most enjoyed Hollings' argument against Fast Track authority, that it transfers "power over trade to the executive branch and favored corporate interests." But as someone trying to ban the software industry at the behest of his Hollywood masters, at least he's talking about something he knows here.