Paul Samuelson: Rethinking Free Trade

For decades, the orthodox view on free trade has been strong and simple: countries do what they do best, and everyone ends up a winner. But now, an economist who literally wrote the book on economics is demanding a rethink.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Samuelson is challenging conventional "win-win" assumptions about free trade. The low-wage, high-innovation economies of China and India, he says, demand a second look. Americans may be losing big and Samuelson is out to set the record straight.

Hear a discussion with Paul Samuelson on the case against unbridled free trade.

Guests:

Paul Samuelson, winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Economics. He is professor emeritus of economics at MIT, where he has taught for six decades. He was an economic adviser to President John F. Kennedy in the 1960s and has consulted for the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve Bank. His 1948 textbook "Economics: An Introductory Analysis" is now in its 18th edition.