Global trade frameworks only function properly under specific conditions. First, there needs to be genuine comparative advantage—where each party actually benefits from specialization. Second, major trading partners can't simultaneously be geopolitical adversaries. Right now? We're hitting neither.

The surface-level take blames current leadership exclusively. But dig deeper, and you realize the structural cracks run way back. When nations optimize for political positioning rather than economic efficiency, supply chains break. When trust evaporates between trading powers, tariffs become theater instead of tools.

For crypto markets, this matters more than it seems. Global monetary fragmentation, capital controls, and trade tensions all flow into asset allocation decisions. The old playbook of borderless commerce is getting rewritten in real time.