But thus do I counsel you, my friends: distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!

China is criticized for undervaluing its currency. This leads to Chinese exports being artificially cheaper imports to China being more expensive, a de-facto Tariff. At the same time the dollar is dropping relative to the Euro. All you hear in the news in relation to that is how expensive it is for American tourists to travel to Europe right now. You never hear about how this makes our exports to Europe cheaper or how it might make American tourist spending in China a better bargain. All I’m trying to illustrate so far is that the conventional wisdom in relation to international trade policy is shaped by superficial analysis. So what are we to think of the ‘lead scare’ from the Chinese exports? Parents in America have been awash in news of lead contaminated children’s toys coming from China. Very identifiable, mainstream toys; the Sarge jeep from Toys and Polly Pocket (she had dangerous magnets rather than lead) baby bibs have also been recalled because of lead contamination. Talk about a shot to the psychological gut. This is the sort of news that every parent I know will spend some time reading and thinking about, talking about on park benches while the kids hang off the jungle gym. It seeps very quickly into consciousness. And before that it was tainted dog food from China killing our pets, not to mention toothpaste. Really no quicker way to tap into American sentiments than through our kids and our dogs. There was a story on NPR a few weeks ago about a family that decided not to buy any products, food shoes etc, from China. As you can imagine this was quite difficult, and apparently, even more difficult than you imagine. This news cycle is likely better than any tariff that the US would be able to get past the WTO. Of course there is little mainstream coverage of Brazil’s complaints about prohibited cotton subsidies in the US.