Free trade is essential to prosperity, peace, and civilization. But free trade does not mean State-managed trade of the Nafta sort. It means businesses and individuals able to deal across international borders as easily as across town borders. Many things hamper free trade, such as fluctuating fiat currencies, which reintroduce barter, as Hoppe notes. But trade sanctions are also damaging and dangerous, and multiplying. Sanctions, which are acts of war, seek to sicken and impoverish civilians in a hated foreign country. Any GOP neocon or con claiming to believe in free trade and sanctions is a fraud. Of course, that’s hardly news. But we can know that anyone championing trade barriers against Russia, Iran, Cuba, or any place else is an enemy of capitalism,  freedom, and peace.

The Best of Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.