A Bad Drug For Trade Ills

Protectionist rumblings could counteract the curative powers of falling U.S. interest rates

Think of the global economy as you might think of yourself starting to feel sick. You wake up one day with a bad cold--that was last winter. It turns into a nasty dose of flu that, with a few pills and lots of honey and lemon, you think you'll get over soon. That was the spring. But now your aches and pains are beginning to feel like something worse; pneumonia, maybe? That's where we are this summer.

The central problem of the international marketplace is simply put: "There's no clear growth locomotive right now," says economist David Hale of Zurich Kemper....

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