*  *  *  Interest in issues of trade, tariffs, and protectionism has ebbed and flowed in this country since our founding. The widened trade deficit of recent years, in the context of a prolonged bout of job loss, has again elevated cries of distress to special prominence.
The sensitivity of our economy to foreign competition does appear to have intensified recently as technological obsolescence has continued to foreshorten the expected profitable life of the nation’s capital stock. The more rapid turnover of our equipment and plant, as one might expect, is mirrored in an increased turnover of jobs.