They create barriers and artificial controls over what should be the free flow of goods and money. Some even try to fix the figures by fiddling with the currency exchange rate. Currency, being the conversion factor of all tradable goods, services, and assets, changes the balance of power within the ILE as wealth thus redistributed is dramatically different from the national economy-based balance of power. According to the old macroeconomist's view, the exchange rate should change to adjust for the differences in purchasing power of tradable goods and in rates of inflation and interest between the two countries in question. The emergence of the ILE has made this concept obsolete.
Companies change hands across borders as easily as paintings, patents, and real estate.
It is in the ILE that most of the wealth in the world is created, consumed, and redistributed. Participation in the ILE is key to prosperity for traditionally isolationist nations. Only through establishment of a healthy two-way pipeline can a developing nation prosper, for the ILE is where nations can get the best value for what they produce. Wealth is now created in the marketplace, rather than in colonies and in soils that contain natural resources. In this interlinked economy, there is no such thing as absolute losers and winners.