EDITORIAL: "Trading Without America," Wall Street Journal, 7 August 2007, p. A10.

Great editorial, and yes, I do worry that Murdoch will dumb down the WSJ to the point where complex explanations like this one become far too rare on its pages.

The piece laments the fate of the Korean FTA, now blocked on the Hill. But what caught my eye was the chart on "bilateral trade fever," something that seemingly always happens whenever there's a hold up on multilateral trade negotiations (WTO).

According to the Business Roundtable (March 07), the U.S. has 10 FTAs, the EU 21. China has proposed or is negotiating FTAs with 28 countries. The percentage of the world's trade flowing through FTAs is now estimated at fifty. FTAs negotiated since 2002 in Asia-Pacific number 119, and there are roughly 300 FTAs in the world today.

Feel like we're falling behind in a conversation? I do.

This editorial triggered my column for next weekend, one in which I pirated some stuff from the book proposal for Vol. III currently awaiting an offer from Putnam (damn those August vacations!).