A 2002 Wall Street Journal article offered the following interesting views from University of Colombia professors (ex Stanford and ex Harvard)

Point of view #1: Capitalism, American-style had some real problems: it could be a force to enrich people everywhere but in practice it has hurt many of the world’s poorest countries and emerging markets, it has pushed austerity on those countries that needed stimulus, led to huge volatility in financial markets and sometimes is only a proxy for cheap access to the world market for the US. For instance, Africa was made worse by trade liberalization, because trade was opened for services exported by rich countries but remained protected in the areas where Africa could compete, such as agricultural goods, textiles or construction.

Point of view #2: Trade and financial liberalization should be beneficial to everybody as world markets will progressively reach an equilibrium point.

Which side of the fence do you sit on?