Are New Trade Wars Looming

I have agreed to talk on the question "Are New Trade Wars Looming?" The answer is yes, but I must also tell you that I think this is the wrong question. What we are really interested in is why trade wars occur and where the economic philosophy we call protectionism comes from. A major cause of the worldwide war and depression that crippled much of the first half of the twentieth century was imperialism and the rivalry of nations for trade, commodities, raw materials, and labor—this produced protectionism. I want to suggest the special importance of finance capital in this process, both earlier in the twentieth century and now. Rather than worrying about trade wars, we should concentrate on the power of capital's control over our political economy, especially the role of international financiers.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website

Capital (architecture) · Economic history · Economics · Free trade · Great Depression · International trade · Looming · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Protectionism · Rivalry · Economic Theory and Policy · History · Law

• Transnational Competition and the End of U. S. Economic Hegemony

  Open Access•J R Harris, Jerry Harris•Science & Society•2003

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