Financial sanctions have become a key tool of U.S. foreign policy. Measures taken against Iran and North Korea make clear that this new financial statecraft can be effective, but true success will require persuading global banks to accept a shared sense of risk.

The financial crisis has called into serious question the credibility of western governments and may precipitate an eastward shift of power.

Trade problems are an underlying cause of the financial crisis. To truly revive the world economy, a new trade consensus is necessary.

The current economic crisis may have one winner: the Chinese financial model, which -- together with the IMF -- holds the keys to fixing the problem.

The next president must bring back a sound dollar, rein in Wall Street, and resist the urge to manipulate prices.

Whatever the economic gains under Putin, they would have been greater under a democratic regime.

The prosperity of the United States and China depends on helping China further integrate into the global economic system.

Debating Venezuela's progress.

Sebastian Mallaby's update to his January/February 2007 essay "Hands Off Hedge Funds."

The former chief economist of the Venezuelan National Assembly argues that despite Hugo Chavez's pledge to fight poverty, the Venezuelan president's economic policies have hurt the poor most of all.

This Foreign Affairs article argues against U.S. policymakers pushing China to revalue its currency.

Globalization has brought huge overall benefits, but earnings for most U.S. workers -- even those with college degrees -- have been falling recently; inequality is greater now than at any other time in the last 70 years. Whatever the cause, the result has been a surge in protectionism. To save globalization, policymakers must spread its gains more widely. The best way to do that is by redistributing income.

Global financial instability has sparked a surge in "monetary nationalism" -- the idea that countries must make and control their own currencies. But globalization and monetary nationalism are a dangerous combination, a cause of financial crises and geopolitical tension. The world needs to abandon unwanted currencies, replacing them with dollars, euros, and multinational currencies as yet unborn.

Protectionist sentiment on Capitol Hill threatens to scuttle Washington's free-trade agenda. A bipartisan consensus on trade could emerge, but only if the White House and the Democrats can reach a compromise on labor issues.

Not long ago, the expansion of free trade worldwide seemed inevitable. Over the last few years, however, economic barriers have started to rise once more. The forecast for the future looks mixed: some integration will probably continue even as a new economic nationalism takes hold. Managing this new, muddled world will take deft handling, in Washington, Brussels, and Beijing.

The massive growth of hedge funds has sparked warnings of instability and demands that the industry be regulated. But the fear of hedge funds is overblown, based on a misunderstanding of their role in the international financial system. In reality, hedge funds do not increase risk; they manage it -- and policymakers, rather than clamping down, should make sure hedge funds have the tools to perform this function well.