Joseph Stiglitz describes the impact of the economic crisis on policy

In the current Vanity Fair, Joseph Stiglitz provides a broad but telling picture of ways that the current global economic crisis will combine with colonial and post-colonial economic history to generate retrograde policies in many countries: 

Many countries may conclude not simply that unfettered capitalism, American-style, has failed but that the very concept of a market economy has failed, and is indeed unworkable under any circumstances. Old-style Communism won’t be back, but a variety of forms of excessive market intervention will return. And these will fail. The poor suffered under market fundamentalism—we had trickle-up economics, not trickle-down economics. But the poor will suffer again under these new regimes, which will not deliver growth. Without growth there cannot be sustainable poverty reduction. There has been no successful economy that has not relied heavily on markets. Poverty feeds disaffection. The inevitable downturns, hard to manage in any case, but especially so by governments brought to power on the basis of rage against American-style capitalism, will lead to more poverty. 

Among the faults that he descries are the reciprocal, but exclusive, trade packages that are under consideration in the US and Europe: 

Joseph E. Stiglitz on the economic crisis.

Capitalist Fools, January 2009

Reversal of Fortune, November 2008

The $3 Trillion War, April 2008 (with Linda J. Bilmes)

The Economic Consequences of Mr. Bush, December 2007

There used to be a sense of shared values between America and the American-educated elites around the world. The economic crisis has now undermined the credibility of those elites. We have given critics who opposed America’s licentious form of capitalism ample ammunition to preach a broader anti-market philosophy. And we keep giving them more and more ammunition. While we committed ourselves at a recent G-20 meeting not to engage in protectionism, we put a “buy American” provision into our own stimulus package. And then, to soften the opposition from our European allies, we modified that provision, in effect discriminating against only poor countries.

Of course poor countries are going to bridled at OECD protectionist policies. But with the exception of the BRIC and OPEC countries, there's not much they can do about it--which of course only throws fuel on the fires of resentment. As a result, and as a result of OECD investments in key players in telecommunications, media and other information-related players in Africa, Asia and Latin America, the fall-out will ultimately show up as decreased competitiveness in those sectors. Africa is going to get high-speed backbone across the continent within the next 5 to 7 years (and potentially sooner), but it might just be happening at a time when sectoral competitiveness and deregulation are in retrograde. 

Bummer.