strange defeat of fair trade and sound finance

I pretty much agree with DeLong and Krugman on most things.. But DeLong's defense of NAFTA has returned memories of how Krugman used to argue for free trade in the late 90s as the left protested NAFTA and the the Battle in Seattle had riots over a WTO meeting, which began the militarization of the police.

In the discussion of Piketty a main focus is the aggregate of capital and labor income share. Larry Summers suggest free trade is in the process of working itself out. Dean Baker, another great teacher and populizer like DeLong and Krugman, has suggested the same in regards to China.

But there has been a long run of the working out. Now, both DeLong and Krugman say the U.S. could lower its trade deficit by devaluing the currency but don't emphasize it the way Baker does.

J.W. Mason has been focused on the euthanasia of the rentier and that's another matter of debate under Piketty's K21. It's part of the process of what's being worked out as Summers put it. But with rising inequality, the 1 percent gain in political power and can keep the their returns up.

DeLong and Krugman mistankenly focused on "sound finance" sort of. Krugman on how the Bush tax cuts and deficits would drive up rates. DeLong on Clinton's deal with Greenspan. But both were the pushed to the left by the Bush years, the housing bubble/financial crisis and the Insane Clown Posse Show/ Dark Age of Economics. To be reality-based is to be radical.