Free Trade And Worker Displacement

*Updated edition with a new foreword on the Trump administration's trade policy* The vast benefits promised by the supporters of globalization, and by their own government, have never materialized for many Americans. In Failure to Adjust Edward Alden provides a compelling history of the last four decades of US economic and trade policies that have left too many Americans unable to adapt to or compete in the current global marketplace. He tells the story of what went wrong and how to correct the course. Originally published on the eve of the 2016 presidential election, Alden’s book captured the zeitgeist that would propel Donald J. Trump to the presidency. In a new introduction to the paperback edition, Alden addresses the economic challenges now facing the Trump administration, and warns that economic disruption will continue to be among the most pressing issues facing the United States. If the failure to adjust continues, Alden predicts, the political disruptions of the future will be larger still.

NAFTA. The WTO. Trade agreements are supposed to benefit us all. Instead, in the decade since they've been in effect, life has become much worse for millions of working Americans. In Shafted, working people-family farmers and farmworkers, fishermen and seamstresses-describe the ruin free trade has brought to them, their families, and their towns. These aren't theorists; these are the voices of experience. And they're telling us, clearly and eloquently, that it's time to stop the madness that enriches a few corporations at the cost of justice, human rights, community, family, and the dignity of work and of workers.

In this study of the medium-term effects of trade displacement on American workers, Kletzer uses worker-level data from the US Displaced Worker Surveys to examine the pattern of reemployment following trade-related job loss. She also analyzes regional and local labor market variations, and concludes by exploring the implications of her findings for US policy on linking the labor market and international trade.

This guide is an update To The 2001 Guide to worker displacement that was published as a response To The Asian financial crisis. The Guide, drawing on experience primarily in North America and during the transition process in Central and Eastern Europe, explores how enterprises, communities and workers can respond To The financial crisis and how to reduce potential job losses. This includes possible strategies for averting layoffs and promoting business retention by communities, enterprise managements and workers' association. The guide is primarily for use in industrialized and transition countries, and is aimed at policy makers, employers and workers in developing appropriate responses that promote worker retention and employment during the recession.