1. What do you think accounts for where components of the iPod and Barbie are made? It is impossible to understand the workings of an economy without first understanding the ways in which economies are connected across borders. The United States was importing goods and services at a rate of more than $2.8 trillion per year in 2014 and was exporting at a rate of more than

$2.3 trillion per year.

For literally hundreds of years, the virtues of free trade have been the subject of heated debate. Opponents have argued that buying foreign-produced goods costs Americans jobs and hurts U.S. producers. Proponents argue that there are gains from trade—that all countries can gain from specializing in the production of the goods and services they produce best.