First, as I noted, it is possible to see long-term economic developments in Europe that evolved from the end of WWII through today. And the Marshall Plan (1948-1952) can be seen to be relevant to this development. As European economies grew in the 1950s, the interdependence between countries in western Europe grew stronger and stronger. We can understand this increased interdependency to be connected to the development of trade organizations:
1950 - European Coal and Steel Community (France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxumbourg, Italy)
1957 - EEC - European Economic Community - a/k/a Common Market
1960 - EFTA
1973 - EEC - 9 member states
1981 - EEC - 10 member states
1986 - EEC - 12 member states
1995 - EU - 15 member states
Thus, we can see this long-term development of increased trade cooperation and interdependency of European countries.
One of the objectives of these organizations is to make trade easier. And the key issue is the lowering of trade barriers (taxes) and other regulations.
And we noted that the even larger goal of these economic measures is to stop wars. Because interdependency means that if I hurt you (my economic partner), I hurt myself.
But I also wanted to draw attention to the fact that free trade is not without its problems -- both short term and long term. So I tried to create the scenario of a foreign product potentially harming the market for a domestic product. I didn't do a great job with discussing this scenario. But while free trade can give consumers greater options and can drive innovation, it can potentially harm a state's own industries. And when local industries disappear, they can have an affect on employment, tax revenues, other local businesses . . . My objective is not to propogate for one system over another. My objective is to help you understand that there are different issues that can be addressed. And these different issues were addressed during the Cold War.
As I was preparing to write this, there was in a mail in my inbox from SVT documentaries. And lo and behold, there was a documentary about a current debate regarding how free-trade agreements look today. Thus, these issues can be seen to be an outcome of the economic policies that were put into place after WWII, and which were undoubtedly helped along by the Marshall Plan. The main issue that is discussed in this documentary is the power trade agreements give giant international corporations. Issues such as the environmental and healthcare can sometimes be jeopardized by free-trade agreements that remove government oversight. The issues are far larger than this documentary presents. This is why you should be hungry to try and take in as many different sources of information as you can
You'll find the documentary here. It's called Frihandelns Pris.
UPDATE
Listening to the news this morning (March 17, NPR's Morning Edition), I heard an interview with Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, where he spoke of his belief in the long-term benefits of free trade for the United States. He agreed that sometimes free trade affects the jobs of certain people. But in the long run, he argued that the economy benefited and military conflicts were avoided. Thus, we hear echoes of the ideology laid out in the Marshall Plan speech. Here is a Tweet he sent on precisely this topic:
(Not all the commenters agreed. )
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A very good source for learning about all sorts of economic issues is the podcast Planet Money. They explore a wide variety of topics. I've noted some of them in past blog entries. If you're interested in understanding economics in all its different forms -- particularly beyond the exciting world of bookkeeping(!) -- you should check it out.
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