The IMF's present large outstanding loans to Brazil, Indonesia, and Turkey should remind us that Argentina is not the only country that might have difficulty in repaying the IMF.

Only by continuing to act on the high seas as it always has can the United States hope to maintain a system of international rules that serves its own interests. Ratifying UNCLOS could very well have the opposite effect.

American politics, culture, and lawis more receptive to a regulatory regime that operates on rules rather than principles.

If the WTO collapses as a negotiating forum, nations may move towards a crass calculus that assesses verdicts only on the basis of the threats that back them. This would be a deeply regrettable move away from a rules-based global trading regime.

FHA Watch, a new monthly online publication, will focus on the government’s 100 percent taxpayer-backed Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage guarantee program and the risks it poses for taxpayers, families, and communities. 

There is a disconnect between U.S. policymakers' sense of what global rules of economic conduct ought to say and what they actually say, and a meeting with a pre-set mandate to address imbalances would offer the best opportunity to defuse some of those festering tensions.

The Doha talks cannot conclude without attention from the highest level of political leadership. Should this not be forthcoming, we may be in for an extended period of institutional decay.

The United States should choose its policies to best further the national interest. That requires a compound calculation of both the gains available from a change in Chinese policy and the probability of U.S. initiatives effecting such a change.