Mankiw’s memo to President-Elect Obama (so glad that’s been taken care of) is worth reading. Predictably he mentions encouraging free trade, reducing social security benefits, etc., but also reiterates that Obama has some talented advisors on his staff, and he should listen to them and steer away from some of the populist messages he used in the campaign.

Anyway, reading this reminded me of one of my other favorites from Mankiw, written in ‘06. Actually, come to think of it, I think I like it a lot more. We’re getting pretty close to New Years’, so here are some of his proposed resolutions:

• Promote Free Trade
• Get rid of farm subsidies
• Carbon Tax!!!
• Get rid of penny (nice)

I wish the Free Trade thing were less controversial than it is. The New Yorker has a nice section on Obama’s  view of Free Trade when they covered him in 2004, which does a much better job articulating what I hope his personal view is than looking at his voting record (see Mankiw’s memo) or campaign rhetoric:

He mostly told the union men what they wanted to hear. Then he said, “There’s nobody in this room who doesn’t believe in free trade,” which provoked a small recoil. These men were ardent protectionists. A little later, he said, with conviction, “I want India and China to succeed”—a sentiment not much heard in the outsourcing-battered heartland. He went on, however, to criticize Washington and Wall Street for not looking after American workers.

Later, I asked him if he wasn’t waving a red flag in front of labor by talking about free trade. “Look, those guys are all wearing Nike shoes and buying Pioneer stereos,” he said. “They don’t want the borders closed. They just don’t want their communities destroyed.”