Review by milliman6716 -- Trade Crash
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milliman6716
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- Latest Review: Trade Crash by Bruce Aitken and Ngosong Fonkem
Review by milliman6716 -- Trade Crash
[Following is a volunteer review of "Trade Crash" by Bruce Aitken and Ngosong Fonkem.]
Trade Crash, A Primer on Surviving and Thriving in Pandemics & Global Trade Disruption, by Bruce Aitken & Ngosong Fonkem, provides a layperson with limited historical background on international trade and trade disputes, while going more in depth on recent events that have impacted trade and global supply chains. Chapters are dedicated to the disruption to trade and global supply chains during the Trump administration, tips and case studies on methods for the businessperson to navigate trade disruptions, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on international trade, and expectations regarding the 2020 U.S. presidential and congressional elections. The authors warn of a possible trade crash in late 2020 or 2021, ultimately caused by the pandemic’s effects on the global economy, mounting sovereign debt and the reaction by states to disruption of global supply chains.
The most interesting section of the book was the chapter offering tips to trade practitioners on navigating disruption to trade and global supply chains. The authors and contributors offer real world examples from their own practices of tools for dealing with such disruptions, such as involving trade associations and other stakeholders in the early stages of trade negotiations or proposed introduction of tariffs or other measures, in order to pressure policy makers to reach a desired outcome. They also stress measures to anticipate trade disruptions and other risk mitigation strategies, such as staying on top of National Trade Estimates and the Trade Policy Agenda published annually by the U.S. Trade Representative. I also found the section describing trade policy and legislative tools used under the Trump administration and outlining key events in the U.S. trade dispute with China to have been informative and well-written in comparison to some other parts of the book.
The book is an eclectic collage of writing styles and topics that appears to have been cobbled together haphazardly in order to meet a publishing deadline. For example, the chapter on coronavirus and the disruption of trade contains a commentary by Gerald T. Aitken (his familial relationship, if any, with one of the principal authors is not stated) on “Coping with the Pandemic: Hoarding vs. Prepping.” While it offers interesting insights into surviving both human-made and natural disasters, it has only a tangential relationship to international trade. Presumably it is included to provide readers with tools for surviving an impending trade crash; however, notwithstanding the book's title, the authors do not really discuss what they mean by the term, or that they expect the impact to be so dire as to necessitate resort to survivalist tactics.
While one of the authors acknowledges the editorial suggestions of two law students, the book contains copious grammatical errors and was clearly neither proofread nor edited prior to publication. The most common errors are overuse of capitalization and subject/verb disagreement, likely due to English not being the first language of all of the book’s contributors. Moreover, the book contains factual errors that a professional editor might have caught, for example referring to the WTO as the World Trading Organization (its correct title is World Trade Organization), and suggesting that the World Bank has replaced the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the IBRD in fact still exists and is part of the World Bank Group). In the section outlining the history of trade wars, the authors suggest that trade wars often devolve into hot wars, while the belligerents use pretexts to justify the conflict. Unfortunately and perhaps inadvertently, the authors use the U.S. intervention in Vietnam and the Russian Federation’s 2014 annexation of Crimea as examples, while neither of these conflicts started as a trade dispute. Finally, the book overuses slides and charts. Some of the slides appear to be from the authors’ law school lectures, and some are not even related to the surrounding text. The most striking example is a slide containing nothing more than a conference agenda for a continuing education seminar that took place in 2016, four years before publication.
I rate Trade Crash 2 out of 4 stars. While I found parts of the book informative and interesting, the numerous typographical errors, poor organization of the book and overuse of power point slides and bullet points kept the book from reaching a third star. The book could stand to be rewritten, either as a textbook or as an anthology of articles on trade disruption.
In parts of the book, the authors expressly target trade practitioners, while they appear to have written other sections for law students and lawyers. Nevertheless, the language and concepts in the book are accessible to the layperson, and the book would be appropriate for anyone interested in international trade. However, I would not recommend the book in its current state.
******
Trade Crash
View: on Bookshelves
Trade Crash, A Primer on Surviving and Thriving in Pandemics & Global Trade Disruption, by Bruce Aitken & Ngosong Fonkem, provides a layperson with limited historical background on international trade and trade disputes, while going more in depth on recent events that have impacted trade and global supply chains. Chapters are dedicated to the disruption to trade and global supply chains during the Trump administration, tips and case studies on methods for the businessperson to navigate trade disruptions, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on international trade, and expectations regarding the 2020 U.S. presidential and congressional elections. The authors warn of a possible trade crash in late 2020 or 2021, ultimately caused by the pandemic’s effects on the global economy, mounting sovereign debt and the reaction by states to disruption of global supply chains.
The most interesting section of the book was the chapter offering tips to trade practitioners on navigating disruption to trade and global supply chains. The authors and contributors offer real world examples from their own practices of tools for dealing with such disruptions, such as involving trade associations and other stakeholders in the early stages of trade negotiations or proposed introduction of tariffs or other measures, in order to pressure policy makers to reach a desired outcome. They also stress measures to anticipate trade disruptions and other risk mitigation strategies, such as staying on top of National Trade Estimates and the Trade Policy Agenda published annually by the U.S. Trade Representative. I also found the section describing trade policy and legislative tools used under the Trump administration and outlining key events in the U.S. trade dispute with China to have been informative and well-written in comparison to some other parts of the book.
The book is an eclectic collage of writing styles and topics that appears to have been cobbled together haphazardly in order to meet a publishing deadline. For example, the chapter on coronavirus and the disruption of trade contains a commentary by Gerald T. Aitken (his familial relationship, if any, with one of the principal authors is not stated) on “Coping with the Pandemic: Hoarding vs. Prepping.” While it offers interesting insights into surviving both human-made and natural disasters, it has only a tangential relationship to international trade. Presumably it is included to provide readers with tools for surviving an impending trade crash; however, notwithstanding the book's title, the authors do not really discuss what they mean by the term, or that they expect the impact to be so dire as to necessitate resort to survivalist tactics.
While one of the authors acknowledges the editorial suggestions of two law students, the book contains copious grammatical errors and was clearly neither proofread nor edited prior to publication. The most common errors are overuse of capitalization and subject/verb disagreement, likely due to English not being the first language of all of the book’s contributors. Moreover, the book contains factual errors that a professional editor might have caught, for example referring to the WTO as the World Trading Organization (its correct title is World Trade Organization), and suggesting that the World Bank has replaced the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the IBRD in fact still exists and is part of the World Bank Group). In the section outlining the history of trade wars, the authors suggest that trade wars often devolve into hot wars, while the belligerents use pretexts to justify the conflict. Unfortunately and perhaps inadvertently, the authors use the U.S. intervention in Vietnam and the Russian Federation’s 2014 annexation of Crimea as examples, while neither of these conflicts started as a trade dispute. Finally, the book overuses slides and charts. Some of the slides appear to be from the authors’ law school lectures, and some are not even related to the surrounding text. The most striking example is a slide containing nothing more than a conference agenda for a continuing education seminar that took place in 2016, four years before publication.
I rate Trade Crash 2 out of 4 stars. While I found parts of the book informative and interesting, the numerous typographical errors, poor organization of the book and overuse of power point slides and bullet points kept the book from reaching a third star. The book could stand to be rewritten, either as a textbook or as an anthology of articles on trade disruption.
In parts of the book, the authors expressly target trade practitioners, while they appear to have written other sections for law students and lawyers. Nevertheless, the language and concepts in the book are accessible to the layperson, and the book would be appropriate for anyone interested in international trade. However, I would not recommend the book in its current state.
******
Trade Crash
View: on Bookshelves
Latest Review: Trade Crash by Bruce Aitken and Ngosong Fonkem
