Home › Books & Reviews › Capsule Reviews › Termites in the Trading System: How Preferential Agreements Undermine Free Trade

Termites in the Trading System: How Preferential Agreements Undermine Free Trade

Jagdish Bhagwati
Reviewed by Richard N. Cooper
November/December 2008

We're sorry, but Foreign Affairs does not have the copyright to display this article online.

Related

Essay, Jul/Aug 2002
Chapter 11 for Countries?
Richard N. Cooper

A debate is unfolding over a new IMF proposal to avert future Argentina-style financial meltdowns: an international "Chapter 11" that would let a country declare bankruptcy, just like a troubled firm. Such a plan would represent an improvement over the current approach -- but it will not eliminate financial crises altogether.

Read
Essay, Oct 1969
International Liquidity and Foreign Aid
Edward R. Fried

Before the end of this year, the Special Drawing Rights machinery of the International Monetary Fund should come into operation, ushering in a new era of multilaterally created international reserves. This is no small matter. The international community has not heretofore created anything so deadly serious as money.

Read
Essay, Jan/Feb 2002
Capitalism Unhinged: The IMF and the Lessons of the Last Financial Crisis
Lael Brainard

Paul Blustein offers an inside look at how the International Monetary Fund and world economic authorities navigated the chaos and confusion of the last global financial crisis -- in the hope that we might respond better to the next one.

Read
Cover image

In the Magazine

November/December 2009 / 6, 88
Essay
In the Quicksands of Somalia
Bronwyn Bruton

Washington's repeated attempts to bring peace to Somalia with state-building initiatives have failed, even backfired. It should renounce political intervention and encourage local development without trying to improve governance
Read