Trans Pacific Partnership Is about Control, Not Free Trade : Foundation for Economic Education

Except Krugman writing about new trade theory, very explicitly argues against the government being able to be "very efficient at creating tarrif barriers" to promote the social good:

Instead, it is a sadder but wiser argument for free trade as a rule of thumb in a world whose politics are as imperfect as its markets. The economic cautions are crucial to this argument. If the potential gains from interventionist trade policies were large, it would be hard to argue against making some effort to realize these gains. The thrust of the critique offered above, however, is that the gains from intervention are limited by uncertainty about appropriate policies, by entry that dissipates the gains, and by the general equilibrium effects that insure that promoting one sector diverts resources from others. The combination of these factors limits the potential benefit s o f sophisticate d interventionism.

How the hell are you being upvoted in an economics forum for exposing deluded tripe let alone are flaired. The notion that trade barriers are pareto inefficient and socially suboptimal is one of the cornerstones of economic thought and is one of the most unconversational positions. You can see here from the Chicago IGMPanel and this open letter in support of TPP and TTIP from 14 of the 15 still-living former chairmen of the Council of Economic Advisers (Noteworthy Siglitz being the lone expection). This subreddit is clearly on the verge of jumping the shark if it hasn't yet.

/r/Economics Thread Parent Link - fee.org