Imagine the astonishment of the generation that lived through the depressed 1930s as adults, had its members been able to foresee the shape of today’s world economy! Nonetheless, the economic concerns that continue to cause international debate have not changed that much from those that dominated the 1930s, nor indeed since they were first analyzed by economists more than two centuries ago. What are the merits of free trade among nations compared with protectionism? What causes countries to run trade surpluses or deficits with their trading partners, and how are such imbalances resolved over time? What causes banking and currency crises in open economies, what causes financial contagion between economies, and how should governments handle international financial instability? How can governments avoid unemployment and inflation, what role do exchange rates play in their efforts, and how can countries best cooperate to achieve their economic goals? As always in international economics, the interplay of events and ideas has led to new modes of analysis. In turn, these analytical advances, however abstruse they may seem at first, ultimately do end up playing a major role in governmental policies, in international negotiations, and in people’s everyday lives. Globalization has made citizens of all countries much more aware than ever before of the worldwide economic forces that influence their fortunes, and globalization is here to stay.

想象一下，当一代人成年后经历了萧条的1930年代，如果他们的成员能够预见当今世界经济的形态，他们会有多么惊讶！尽管如此，继续引起国际辩论的经济问题与20世纪30年代的主要问题相比并没有太大改变，事实上，自从经济学家们在两个多世纪前首次对这些问题进行分析以来，也没有太大改变。与保护主义相比，国家间自由贸易有什么优点？是什么原因导致各国与贸易伙伴之间出现贸易顺差或逆差？随着时间的推移，这种不平衡是如何解决的？是什么导致了开放经济体的银行和货币危机，是什么导致了经济体之间的金融传染，政府应该如何应对国际金融不稳定？各国政府如何避免失业和通货膨胀，汇率在它们的努力中发挥什么作用，各国如何进行最佳合作以实现其经济目标？与国际经济学一样，事件和思想的相互作用导致了新的分析模式。反过来，这些分析性的进展，不管起初看起来多么深奥，最终确实在政府政策、国际谈判和人们的日常生活中发挥了重要作用。全球化使各国公民比以往任何时候都更加了解影响其命运的世界经济力量，全球化将继续存在。