> neither accounts for actors like china where the state heavily intervenes in the economy to artificially boost the competitiveness of its nation's companies and hamstring its rivals. much like all other bluepilled reasoning it takes as given an environment filled with fair actors this is getting at the core which is that international economics, with nations, is very much a game theory approach. we are trying to maximize our advantage and minimize nation peers. maximize the lifestyle for our people.  the (((economics texts))) are optimizing something slightly different, global economic throughput and function, in which case free trade is the obvious natural approach. it's almost as if the people writing these (((books))) want one unified world where the economy, and the people controlling it, are the power core.  in the end it is game theory. the (((economists))) say "free trade is optimal do that!". and they are right. but that assumes other nations are playing the same game. they are not. they will cheese the game to their advantage. game theory. all trump is saying is that they are cheesing the game so need a good spanking
United States