Angela Shah at the Dallas Morning News takes a crack at explaining some of the issues around the Wright Amendment and actually tackles, however briefly, how economists would try to evaluate the impact of the amendment's repeal. Personally, I think she does a pretty good job.

From the article:

"There's economics and there's economics," said Craig Depken, a professor of economics at the University of Texas at Arlington, referring to the unique ability of the dismal science to sometimes enable conflicting analyses. "It depends on whose ox is being gored."

I actually meant to say something like "there's economics and then there's the bottom line," but oh well.

Some more:

Broadly speaking, economists have a philosophical allegiance to creating a marketplace free of protectionism.

So dueling opinions aside, Wright "is a textbook case of protectionism," said Michael Ward, a UT-Arlington associate professor of economics.

"This is one of the things we teach the students all the time. It's a standard midterm question, on the Wright amendment."

He started a petition signed by 20 other local economists advocating Wright's repeal.

I like the first paragraph touching on philosophy, although there are probably some who might take issue.