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[...] We don't see any Swiss manufactured products around because the country is small (around 7 million people), which makes the total amount of Swiss manufactured goods rather small, and because its producers specialize in producer goods, such as machinery and industrial chemicals, rather than co…

Then why are the relative prices of manufactured goods falling? It is because manufacturing industries tend to have faster productivity growth than services. As the output of the manufcaturing sector increases faster than the output of the service sector, the prices of the manufactured goods relati…

[...] Britain adopted free trade only in the 1860s, when its industrial dominance was absolute. In the same way in which the US was the most protectionist country in the world during most of its phase of ascendancy (from the 1830s to the 1940s), Britain was one of the world's most protectionist cou…

The free-market policy package, often known as the neo-liberal policy package, emphasizes lower inflation, greater capital mobility and greater job insecurity (euphemistically called greater labour market flexibility), essentially because it is mainly geared towards the interests of the holders of …

Even more worryingly, the fascination with the internet by people in rich countries has moved the international community to worry about the 'digital divide' between the rich countries and the poor countries. This has led companies, charitable foundations and individuals to donate money to developi…