QotD: "The case for unilateral free trade rests no less on the venality and ineptitude of the state as it does on the pro-social incentives and creativity of the market."

"Protectionists find unjustified comfort in some theoretical curiosa ... such as 'optimal tariffs' and 'strategic trade theory.' But just as the operation of the private economy must be modelled realistically, so too must the operation of the state be modelled realistically. And when the operation of the state is modelled realistically, the prospect of the state acting ‘scientifically’ and apolitically is recognised to be so close to negligible as to be zero. Equally negligible is the prospect of even the most ‘scientific’ and apolitical state ever possessing sufficient knowledge and information to intervene ‘productively.’
    "The case for unilateral free trade rests no less on the venality and ineptitude of the state as it does on the pro-social incentives and creativity of the market."
~ Don Boudreaux, from hist post at Cafe Hayek.