Trade and the Credit Crunch: Shock Therapy

The turmoil in financial markets, weakening growth and the shift in the centre of global economic gravity all threaten to impose huge strains on world order. There is fear of systematic collapse. International economic policy makers do not normally welcome crises. But at the World Trade Organization’s headquarters in Geneva, some are quietly hoping that instability triggered by the global credit crunch may be just what is needed to restore momentum to the beleaguered institution. Perverse as the logic may seem, history suggests it could be right.