Originally Posted by Malkavian

....Much like the Bible

On higher wages:
Higher wages are beneficial in the long term... in the short term, moving manufacturing back to the US will result in higher prices and reduced purchasing power.

On tariffs:
Adam Smith was writing when US was a deadbeat nation/colony facing British economic power... So lol, no wonder he was sympathetic to tariffs... He wasn't stupid.

On traveling capital:
There nothing wrong with traveling capital as such. However, in a true free market freedom of capital must be accompanied by the freedom of labor. That is not the case. Chinese peasant has far less opportunity to come to US seeking better wage than a US firm looking to invest in China. So unless outsourcing nations completely abolish their immigration laws, i'd say developing nations should be free to place restrictions on capital movement.

On List:
While List is correct about industrial capacity and colonialism (well, there was a political dimension to that but anyway...)... such economic nationalism is what lead to WWI, so i'm not sure we want to go that road again.

On domestic investment:
In the current conditions, domestic investment is superior to export led growth. It will remain the case as long as fiat money (such as USD) serve as a global reserve currency. If the currency is fixed in value (ie gold standard) and is freely convertible/investable (unlike USD), i would expect export and domestic development to be about the same.