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Mike Bloomberg on Free Trade Mayor of New York City (Independent)

Protectionist viewpoint has a heavy price to country

Global economy isn’t zero-sum game: US & China can both gain

As a businessman, and now as mayor of the world’s largest financial capital, I believe the opposite is true: Chinese growth is, in fact, an opportunity for the US and the world, because the global economy is not a zero-sum game. We all share in each other’s success.

A growing China creates jobs for our export producers, keeps consumer prices low, expands our choice of goods and services, and increases our access to capital and talent. It also intensifies pressur on China itself to act responsibly on international issues, including security, trade, product safety and climate change. Our serious differences with China in these and other areas must not used as excuses for short-term retaliatory measures.

Staunchly for free trade and against protectionism

The mayor’s most striking remarks were about economic inequality, as he voiced views not widely articulated by his fellow Republicans. “This society cannot go forward, the way we have been going forward, where the gap between the rich and the poor keeps growing,“ said Bloomberg, a former Democrat. ”It’s not politically viable; it’s not morally right; it’s just not going to happen.“

He blamed ‘’the abject failure of public education in this country’’ as a major cause of inequality, arguing that too many young people had not been given the skills essential for a technologically advanced economy.