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The Coming Trade War

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PART 1
The coming trade war and global depression

Trade protectionism is re-emerging, but the irony is that it is being driven not by the poor economies that have been hurt the most by the globalized neo-liberal trade regime, but by the wealthy economies, especially the US.


PART 2
Dollar hegemony against sovereign credit

Twentieth-century history showed that economic fundamentalism can have devastating results. Early in that century, rigid adherence to the gold standard was exacerbated by sterling hegemony, ultimately leading to the Great Depression and World War II. Now a new bunch of fundamentalists are in charge.


PART 3
Trade in the age of overcapacity

Neo-liberals have created a false dichotomy between so-called command economies and market economies. With the CNOOC-Unocal controversy, ideologue fantasy is once again clashing with harsh reality as the US on the one hand relies on China to relieve its overcapacity problem while on the other it fears for its national security.


PART 4
Scarcity economics and overcapacity

The myth of scarcity is as old as the story of Adam and Eve, who were driven out of the garden of plentitude by a jealous god bent on preserving his pre-eminence - rather like today's wealthy capitalists. But the myth is unsustainable, as even the concept of employment is becoming obsolete.


PART 5
Intellectual property rights: Bad TRIPS

Society benefits in the long term when intellectual propert protection encourages creation and invention. However, under the provisions of a WTO rule produced by the Uruguay Round in 1986, the wealthy countries and giant corporations have manipulated this principle for their own short-term gain. But the developing economies are fighting back.


PART 6
Trade wars can lead to shooting wars

The rapid rise of China as a major economic force has provoked US policymakers to wonder whether free trade is still in the US national interest; after all, "free" trade always favors the strong. Now that the US has gotten its way and China has unpegged the yuan, its ill-considered policies will come home to roost, making for desperate times - for everyone. This is the final article in this series.

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