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Thread: US Declinists may be critical but Im sticking w/progressive foreign economic policy based on market power. Or my response to @dandrezner's response to my response to his great original piece. beta.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/0…
@dandrezner 2/Drezner is skeptical of @ewarren foreign economic policy for three key reasons and let me break them down.
@dandrezner @ewarren 3/First, he thinks it is a continuation of Trumpian protectionism and out of sync w/dem voter preferences. Here I think this uses a broad brush to cast aspersions where maybe they are not due.
@dandrezner @ewarren 4/Trumpian protectionism is basically a neo-merchantilist attempt to use tax incentives to shift the balance of imports/export and somehow pressure allies and adversaries to assist in this effort. project-syndicate.org/commentary/tru…
@dandrezner @ewarren 5/The market power that @ewarren and others advocate uses market access to achieve a political policy goal e.g. mitigate climate change or reduce digital inequality. This is not protectionist a la Trump's neo-merchantilism but integrates foreign economic policy w/broader policy.
@dandrezner @ewarren 6/And on key policy objectives, Dem base is w/@ewarren i.e. Climate. thehill.com/policy/energy-…
@dandrezner @ewarren 7/@dandrezner second argument is that US market power is in decline and so it is a weak strategy. Here, at the aggregate there is considerable debate. See US persistence literature. amazon.com/Unrivaled-Amer…
@dandrezner @ewarren 8/More important, market power varies by sector. In insurance, the US internal market is so fragmented we have relative little influence. In others like capital markets, we maintain dominance. As @DBachGlobal and I argue, you need to do a sectral analysis. tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…
@dandrezner @ewarren @DBachGlobal 9/In finance, in particular, US dominance will persist because of self-harm in London and HK because of Brexit and internal unrest. independent.co.uk/news/business/…
@dandrezner @ewarren @DBachGlobal 10/@dandrezner brings up the case of 737 max to dispel US dominance. But this is a very Trumpian case of what I technically label 'sharpie' market power. USG tried to get other countries to fly planes that were literally dropping out of the sky...even market power has its limit.
@dandrezner @ewarren @DBachGlobal 11/Which brings us to the second key critique. Market power relies on expertise/capacity and the US does not have this.
@dandrezner @ewarren @DBachGlobal 12/Here, Trump is particularly undermining US leadership by undermining the credibility and capacity of US expertise in foreign economic policy. See NOAA debacle. nymag.com/intelligencer/…
@dandrezner @ewarren @DBachGlobal 13/And as @ewarren likes to say she actually has a 'plan for that' to rebuild US expertise and capacity. medium.com/@teamwarren/re…
@dandrezner @ewarren @DBachGlobal 14/Finally, a progressive foreign economic policy would be pushing on an open door with our European allies. In most of the Dem priorities -- climate, inequality, digital society -- the EU has the same preferences. politico.eu/article/europe…
@dandrezner @ewarren @DBachGlobal 15/And when the US and EU agree, the world is likely to follow. amazon.com/All-Politics-G…
@dandrezner @ewarren @DBachGlobal 16/What politicians like @ewarren see is that globalization does not need to be shutdown but turned to progressive ends as well. In short, there is a foreign economic policy corollary to work w/@henryfarrell on weaponized interdependence. mitpressjournals.org/doi/full/10.11…
@dandrezner @ewarren @DBachGlobal @henryfarrell 17/Market power, then, shifts debate from trade good/bad and recenters on core policy objectives that need to be enacted to bring prosperity to all Americans.
