It is just amazing to me these high-falutin senators and congressmen and wanna-be presidents do not have the basic understanding of macroeconomics. Imagine if the chairman of the NIH did not understand the law of conservation of energy! Hillary, who wants to be president, does not understand the theory of comparative advantage, which shows that free trade is beneficial to all countries, irrespective of wage or economic level. This theory, which is the equivalent of law of conservation of energy in science, was enunciated by David Ricardo way back in 1817. There is no evidence whatsoever that software engineers in India hurt americans. On the contrary, everything that we understand about economics teaches us that they helps americans. The boom in the tech sector since 2002 has, in part, been fueled by the explosive growth of the Indian software industry. Economists are predicting that the growth of the american economy over the next 20-30 years will be partly driven by the growth of India and China. While everyday americans in different walks of life may not understand this, a senator running for president and who has a lot to say in formulating public policy, has no excuse whatsoever for not understanding basic macroeconomics. It is supremely ironic that Bush, who actually understands comparative advantage (his harvard MBA helps I am sure), and hence does not demagogue Indian software engineers, is widely derided as a dunce.
