Samuel Gregg’s 2022 book, The Next American Economy, is an important and brilliant achievement. Gregg eloquently champions the free, commercial society against its many detractors. Among these detractors, of course, are today’s so- called “national conservatives” (some, but not all, of whom might fairly be described as Trumpian). But no less hostile to the liberal economy that Gregg ably defends are Progressives. While on many fronts national conservatives and Progressives have significant differences, on the economics of international trade, both groups commit the same slew of factual and theoretical errors.
Gregg’s manner of exposing these errors is so scholarly, so fair-minded, and so patient that the reader is surprised to realize, upon reaching the book’s end, that he or she just encountered an absolute evisceration of the modern case for protectionism, and of its fraternal twin, industrial policy.