Trade and Our "Habits of the Lip"

Deirdre McCloskey has convinced me that the words we use, our "habits of the lip," matter mightily. I argue here--in a McCloskeyan spirit--that the words we typically use when describing international trade are highly misleading. We economists need a better approach to persuading the public to improve their understanding of trade and to showing that national boundaries are economically meaningless. The habits of our lips must change.