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After strong growth in 2017 and early 2018, global economic activity slowed notably in the second half of last year, reflecting a confluence of factors affecting major economies. China's growth declined following a combination of needed regulatory tightening to rein in shadow banking and an increase in trade tensions with the United States. The euro area economy lost more momentum than expected as consumer and business confidence weakened and car production in Germany was disrupted by the introduction of new emission standards; investment dropped in Italy as sovereign spreads widened; and external demand, especially from emerging Asia, softened. Elsewhere, natural disasters hurt activity in Japan. Trade tensions increasingly took a toll on business confidence and, so, financial market sentiment worsened, with financial conditions tightening for vulnerable emerging markets in the spring of 2018 and then in advanced economies later in the year, weighing on global demand. Conditions have eased in 2019 as the US Federal Reserve signaled a more accommodative monetary policy stance and markets became more optimistic about a US–China trade deal, but they remain slightly more restrictive than in the fall.

貨幣陪伴人類的歷史約五千年。 貨幣作為人類經濟活動的基礎，從早期的以物易物，金本位制，再到現代主權貨幣的時代，貨幣的意義與型態不斷地演進變異，儼然已成為一種新的權力型態，理所當然地也成為大國政治間新的權力鬥爭場域，也是新的權力工具。 近年來，隨著美元國際地位的動搖，人民幣的崛起，美國聯準會為了挽救金融危機，發動了量化寬鬆政策，並要求人民幣升值。 這場美元與人民幣之間的戰爭，究竟誰勝誰負？究竟鹿死誰手？

本書採用Gravity Model來對台灣簽訂自由貿易協定(Free Trade Agreement；FTA)的效果進行分析，觀察FTA的有無對於貿易量的影響程度。結果發現簽訂FTA確實會對台灣的貿易情形產生正面效果，且對於長期的影響又較短期顯著。而若將商品進行分類後，也的確能看到FTA僅對於Organized Exchange商品的進口以及Reference Priced、Differentiated商品的出口產生顯著效果的現象。且隨著商品類別的不同，可以發現彼此間長短期效果也具有差異性。