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International Trade - Theory and Policy, 2010a

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1.3 Recent <strong>Trade</strong> Controversies<br />

LEARNING OBJECTIVES<br />

1. Identify some of the ways the world has stepped closer to free trade recently.<br />

2. Identify some of the ways the world has stepped further from free trade recently.<br />

In the spring of 2009, the world was in the midst of the largest economic downturn since the early 1980s.<br />

Economic production was falling <strong>and</strong> unemployment was rising. <strong>International</strong> trade had fallen<br />

substantially everywhere in the world, while investment both domestically <strong>and</strong> internationally dried up.<br />

The source of these problems was the bursting of a real estate bubble. Bubbles are fairly common in both<br />

real estate <strong>and</strong> stock markets. A bubble describes a steady <strong>and</strong> persistent increase in prices in a market—<br />

in this case, in the real estate markets in the United States <strong>and</strong> abroad. When bubbles are developing,<br />

many market observers argue that the prices are reflective of true values despite a sharp <strong>and</strong> unexpected<br />

increase. These justifications fool many people into buying the products in the hope that the prices will<br />

continue to rise <strong>and</strong> generate a profit.<br />

Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/books<br />

Saylor.org<br />

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