The advancement of human civilization hinges on trade. As we swap our goods and our ideas with one another, we are propelled into ever-increasing prosperity.

The Dodd-Frank legislation has many problems and omissions, and much is still uncertain about implementation. But the new liquidation authority provides for the possibility of making it so that future crises do not involve the bailouts of creditors that truly embodied the problem of having banks that are too big to fail.

Secretary Geithner argued that we have forgotten the reasons that the Dodd-Frank Act was necessary, and that's why the act has become so controversial. What the secretary seems to have missed is that we have learned a lot in the intervening years. The administration's rush to judgment on the financial crisis is a case study in why it would have been worthwhile to wait for the facts.

As ingenious, painstaking and justifiably attention-getting as domino swaps are, they should not blot out the dismal news that rates of kidney donation, from both living and deceased donors, fall woefully short of the need.

The underlying idea—that financial institutions are "interconnected" and the failure of one will drag down others - is not implausible. But like so much else that underlies the Dodd-Frank Act, it was accepted as true—and acted upon—without much evidence, or even much thought.

China's recent suspension of rare earth shipments has signaled the need for America to take action long before there is a shortage of rare earths, and look to alternative sources and providers.

There are good reasons why the rhetoric from Moscow is harsher than Beijing’s. For a start, China knows lashing out at the U.S. is counterproductive.

Economist John Makin explores, in his latest Economic Outlook, why the Eurozone crisis has worsened so quickly in recent weeks and what options this leaves for Europe.