In spite of all protestations and exhortations it is a fact that trade liberalization, the modern version of free trade, is caught in a crisis. Professor Detlef Lorenz is here analysing the causes of this crisis and suggesting alternatives for a future liberalization policy.

After the price of oil began falling sharply during the first few months of 1986 the prospects for a more pronounced and long-lasting economic upswing in the industrialised countries were generally regarded as having improved. The increase in demand and production in 1986, however, was more...

1979 saw a pronounced cyclical downturn with mounting, inflation and balance of payments problems bear upon the western industrialized countries with the long-expected recession materializing in the USA early in 1980. In Western Europe demand and production began to slide a little later....