The Travels of A T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade. New Preface and Epilogue with U (Paperback, 2, Revised)

PREFACE ix

PROLOGUE xvii

PART I KING COTTON 1

1 How America Has Dominated the Global Cotton Industry for 200 Years 3

2 The History of American Cotton 9

3 Back at the Reinsch Farm 24

4 All God’s Dangers Ain’t the Subsidies 49

PART II MADE IN CHINA 75

5 Cotton Comes to China 77

6 The Long Race to the Bottom 92

7 Sisters in Time 105

8 The Unwitting Conspiracy 120

PART III TROUBLE AT THE BORDER 141

9 Returning to America 143

10 Dogs Snarling Together 156

11 Perverse Effects and Unintended Consequences of T-Shirt Trade Policy 171

12 45 Years of ‘‘Temporary’’ Protectionism End in 2009-----Now What? 196

PART IV MY T-SHIRT FINALLY ENCOUNTERS A FREE MARKET 213

13 Where T-Shirts Go after the Salvation Army Bin 215

14 How Small Entrepreneurs Clothe East Africa with Old American T-Shirts 227

15 Mitumba: Friend or Foe to Africa? 239

CONCLUSION 253

EPILOGUE: DEVELOPMENTS 2009---2014 262

I: American Cotton Is Still King 262

II: The Race to the Bottom Speeds Up 270

III: The Alphabet Armies March On 277

IV: Competition Heats Up in the Used Clothing Business 282

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 286

NOTES 288

BIBLIOGRAPHY 310

INDEX 335