The speaker shares their experience of studying economics where they learned about the efficiency created by free trade, but reflects on the necessary consideration of the distributional consequences because it affects who benefits and who loses. They also mention that American consumers have benefited from free trade while American producers have lost.
Andrew Yang talks about the consequences of policies that only focus on economic efficiency and forgetting about who wins or loses, especially in places like the Midwest and the Rust Belt.
The US has shifted from being advocates of free trade to limiting it due to economic consequences on the production side. Despite previously being a bipartisan decision to bring China into the World Trade Organization, the policy shift has created a divide between Republicans and Democrats.
China's decision to devalue its currency by 40% in 2004 led to an influx of trade with the US, resulting in American companies exporting factories to China and flooding the market with cheaper goods. This caused a re-rating of the currency by almost 60%, leading to a rise in populism on both the left and right for a more protectionist trade policy.
The rise of populism and opioids can be attributed to people's inability to find purpose in their work. Americans turn to fentanyl and other opioids as a coping mechanism when they can't let themselves work hard.