A WSJ/NBC poll shows that most Americans now think free trade agreements hurt the US.

Forbes thinks it is simply the media bias. But USA Today makes a good point, From 2000 to 2009, America’s trade deficit with China surged nearly 300%. During that same time, 5.4 million American jobs in manufacturing were eliminated. It’s tough for U.S. manufacturers to compete against China’s lower wages, looser regulations and cheaper currency.

In a way the public sentiment is understandable. Nobel laureate Paul Samuelson (1969) was once challenged by the mathematician Stanislaw Ulam to "name me one proposition in all of the social sciences which is both true and non-trivial." It was several years later than he thought of the correct response: comparative advantage. "That it is logically true need not be argued before a mathematician; that is is not trivial is attested by the thousands of important and intelligent men who have never been able to grasp the doctrine for themselves or to believe it after it was explained to them."