238 years since Adam Smith exploded the myths of beggar-thy-neighbor mercantilism in The Wealth of Nations in the same year as the United States declared independence from Great Britain, and 85 years since the Smoot-Hawley tariff precipitated the Great Crash, protectionists on both sides if the Atlantic are opposing and meddling in free international commerce.
The American drug company Pfizer wants to take over the British firm AstraZeneca. This would make Pfizer a U.K.-based company for tax purposes, effectively escaping an increasingly hostile and extortionist American tax policy. This of course does not please the US tax authorities. How dare Pfizer desert it's patriotic duty to cough up another billion?
Meanwhile, nationalist purists and unions in the UK object to this infusion of capital into their economy, largely because it gives them less control over other people's money. The general population of Britain should see through this phony concern for their well-being.
Read the complete article at The Wall Street Journal.