In 10 well-organized chapters, international trade expert Griswold, director of the Cato Institute's trade policy center, reaches out to low- and middle-class readers to make a persuasive case against U.S. protectionism by illustrating how have-nots are the most likely to benefit from the global marketplace in the form of lower prices, greater variety and better quality of goods. Criticizing everyone from President Obama to CNN's Lou Dobbs for fostering anti-trade sentiment, Griswold presents a "clean view" of "America's changing place in the world economy." Bringing complex issues home, literally, Griswold opens his examination with a survey of his closet, containing items from Australia, Bulgaria, China, Costa Rica, and Vietnam, but little from the U. S. How and why these faraway items wind up here is something few Main Street Americans think about, but Griswold explains the complicated mechanisms of world trade with brisk, easy-to-read prose. Griswold also claims that, despite the loss of American jobs to other countries, most new U.S. jobs (created in part by free trade) are in well-paying service industries that form the backbone of today's middle class. Griswold also presents an eight-point "trade agenda for a free people," but doesn't miss an opportunity to tout his organization's public policy efforts. (Nov.) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

The subtitle conveys the main thesis of this book, which is a systematic argument in favor of freer trade. Although dealing with globalization, this work concentrates on the effects of an open economy on the US. Separate chapters rebut the standard arguments against trade, such as job destruction, pauper wages, and loss of sovereignty. An early chapter argues that trade is the consumer's best friend. In a chapter on employment, Griswold (Cato) states that trade influences the sector in which workers are employed, rather than total employment. On the topic of manufacturing, he shows that production has increased at the same time employment has decreased, the result of increased worker productivity. Griswold addresses the trade deficit and the benefits to Americans from foreign investment by US firms, and he argues that higher prices caused by trade barriers are especially harmful to low-income consumers. The closing chapter is "A Trade Agenda for a Free People." The book is clearly written and contains extensive data to support the arguments. Griswold writes in nontechnical language but demonstrates an awareness of the more technical, scholarly literature on the subject. See related, Douglas Irwin's Free Trade under Fire (CH, Mar'03, 40-4109). Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduate through professional collections. T. J. Grennes North Carolina State University