Martin Hart-Landsberg points out that free trade agreements, such as the one the US is poised to conclude with South Korea, are about much more than trade -- they expand the power of big corporations, strip governments of their ability to regulate them, and fuel capitalism's destructive tendencies. According to Hart-Landsberg, the Korea-US trade deal would also fuel the already-disastrous financialization of the US economy.

In his latest book, David Bacon elucidates the structural factors that generate poverty among people who eventually migrate to the US. According to Bacon, trade policy and the neoliberal economic agenda are closely connected to immigration patterns and policies. He also highlights the political agency of migrant workers.

If fair trade is the saner alternative to so-called free trade, then how should we go about conceptualizing the former? Michael Howard argues for an egalitarian system that prioritizes the needs of developing countries. Also, Jeffrey Rubin describes what Lula could have done, and could still do, to respond to the concerns and activities of Brazil's social movements.