Dr. Ravi Batra, whose book The Great Depression of 1990 was on the New York Times bestseller list for fifty-two weeks, now boldly challenges the myth of free trade. The startling evidence he sets forth shows that the United States is on the edge of economic disaster.
Although mainstream economists - and highly paid corporate executives - trumpet "free trade" as America's best possible source of prosperity, Dr. Batra insists the policy may have damaged our economy as severely as the Great Depression. Almost every economic problem we face - the outrageous federal deficit; rising unemployment; the shrinking middle class; the "merger mania" that slashed jobs, killed competitiveness, and increased corporate debt; and environmental degradation - can be linked to the free trade policy that the United States has been following over the last twenty years.
Batra sets forth a compelling plan for "competitive protectionism" and prescribes a radical but well-reasoned five-year plan for economic revival:
average tariffs on imports should be raised from 5 percent to 40 percent
ban mergers among giant firms
IBM, General Motors, and other Fortune 500 firms should be split into smaller, more competitive units, along the lines of the AT&T divestiture in 1982; no single company should be allowed more than 10 percent of the domestic market
encourage foreign investment in the United States in new ventures; don't permit investors to simply buy existing concerns
the U.S. government should take an active role in subsidizing private R&D spending with money from increased tariff revenue and from drastically reduced defense spending
In his stunning conclusion, Batra makes a clear and convincing argument that "competitive protectionism would increase tax revenues, resurrect the manufacturing base, raise real earnings for 80 percent of the work force, trim inequality, reduce the rate of poverty, enhance the growth of productivity, cripple the abuse of monopoly power by big business, revitalize the economy, and, above all, restore America's economic leadership in the world."

Dr. Ravi Batra teaches international economics at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.