Sunday, December 07, 2008

Don't Trade Recession for Depression

If the 1930s taught us anything, it was that one way to make a depression "Great" is for countries around the world to go protectionist. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, signed by President Herbert Hoover in 1930, is justifiably notorious for having triggered a disastrous cycle of trade conflict. Among the more insane examples of Depression-era trade policy was the "Egg War" between the United States and Canada, in which the Smoot-Hawley tariff on eggs prompted Ottawa to impose retaliatory duties on American eggs, drying up a once-lucrative source of income for farmers on both sides of the border. So there's no chance that the world will go down the protectionist route again in any serious way, right?



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