To axe or not to axe the Ex-Im?

THE conventional wisdom in Washington these days is that populist sentiments are sweeping the nation and that Americans are in an anti-globalisation mood.

They accuse American companies of relocating their operations to low-wage economies abroad. They blame the Chinese for stealing their jobs. And many of them perceive international trade as a zero-sum-game: We either win by exporting more goods, or we lose if we are being flooded with foreign imports.

Unfortunately, as George Mason University economist Bryan Caplan proposed in his study, The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies, most American voters are economically illiterate and tend to view themselves as victims of the market and to blame technology, outsourcing, high corporate profits and downsizing as reasons for why growth isn't as high as it could be - views that are rejected by most mainstream economists.