So contemporary global trade is pretty anarchic and unregulated, at least by international institutions and national governments. Much of this has to do with academic economists, mostly in the US and Europe, who have argued with great success that governmental regulation diminishes prosperity by limiting growth. Now, some nations in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa haven't been particularly keen to pursue free trade, but they've been bullied into it by larger economies with whom they desperately need to trade. So in the past 30 years, we've seen all these emerging markets lowering their tariffs, getting rid of regulation, and privatizing formerly state-run businesses. And they often do that to appease the International Monetary Fund, which offers low-interest loans to developing world economies with the motto, Many Strings Attached. Now, whether these decreased regulations have been a net positive for these developing world economies is a subject of much debate, and we will wade into it, but not until next week. First, we need to understand more about the nature of this trade.