che actu dork cimcs nytimes.com September 9, 2004 An Elder Challenges outsourcings Orthodoxy By STEVE LOHR t89, Paul A. Samuelson, the Nobel Prize-winning economist and professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, still seems to have plenty of intellectual edge and the ability to antagonize and amuse His dissent from the mainstream economic consensus about outsourcing and globalization will appear later this month in a distinguished journal, cloaked in clever phrases and theoretical equations, but clearly aimed at the orthodoxy within his profession: Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve; Bhagwat, a leading international economist and professor at Columbia Universiy and JagdishN N. Gregory Mankiw, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers These heavyweights, among others, are perpetrators of what Mr Samuelson terms"the popular polemical untruth Popular among economists, that is. That untruth, Mr. Samuelson asserts in an article for the Journal of Economic Perspectives, is the assumption that the laws of economics dictate that the american economy will benefit in the long run from all forms of international trade, including the outsourcing abroad of call-center and software programming jobs Sure, Mr Samuelson writes, the mainstream economists acknowledge that some people will gain and others will suffer in the short term, but they quickly add that"the gains of the American winners are big enough to more than compensate for the losers That assumption, so widely shared by economists, is"only an innuendo, "Mr Samuelson writes. For it is dead wrong about necessary surplus of winnings over losings Trade, in other words, may not always work to the advantage of the American economy, according to Mr Samuelson In an interview last week, Mr. Samuelson said he wrote the article to " set the record straight" beca the mainstream defenses of globalization were much too simple a statement of the problem. "Mr Samuelson, who calls himself a"centrist Democrat, said his analysis did not come with a recipe of policy steps, and he emphasized that it was not meant as a justification for protectionist measures Up to now, he said, the gains to America have outweighed the losses from trade, but that outcome is not necessarily guaranteed in the future In his article, Mr. Samuelson begins by noting the unease many Americans feel about their jobs andSeptember 9, 2004 An Elder Challenges Outsourcing's Orthodoxy By STEVE LOHR t 89, Paul A. Samuelson, the Nobel Prize-winning economist and professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, still seems to have plenty of intellectual edge and the ability to antagonize and amuse. His dissent from the mainstream economic consensus about outsourcing and globalization will appear later this month in a distinguished journal, cloaked in clever phrases and theoretical equations, but clearly aimed at the orthodoxy within his profession: Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve; N. Gregory Mankiw, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers; and Jagdish N. Bhagwati, a leading international economist and professor at Columbia University. These heavyweights, among others, are perpetrators of what Mr. Samuelson terms "the popular polemical untruth." Popular among economists, that is. That untruth, Mr. Samuelson asserts in an article for the Journal of Economic Perspectives, is the assumption that the laws of economics dictate that the American economy will benefit in the long run from all forms of international trade, including the outsourcing abroad of call-center and software programming jobs. Sure, Mr. Samuelson writes, the mainstream economists acknowledge that some people will gain and others will suffer in the short term, but they quickly add that "the gains of the American winners are big enough to more than compensate for the losers." That assumption, so widely shared by economists, is "only an innuendo," Mr. Samuelson writes. "For it is dead wrong about necessary surplus of winnings over losings." Trade, in other words, may not always work to the advantage of the American economy, according to Mr. Samuelson. In an interview last week, Mr. Samuelson said he wrote the article to "set the record straight" because "the mainstream defenses of globalization were much too simple a statement of the problem." Mr. Samuelson, who calls himself a "centrist Democrat," said his analysis did not come with a recipe of policy steps, and he emphasized that it was not meant as a justification for protectionist measures. Up to now, he said, the gains to America have outweighed the losses from trade, but that outcome is not necessarily guaranteed in the future. In his article, Mr. Samuelson begins by noting the unease many Americans feel about their jobs and