Friday, 1 January 2010

Protectionism is doing to ourselves in peacetime what our enemies to do us in wartime

This graph comes from Mark J. Perry's blog Carpe Diem.

The graph shows the volume of U.S. exports of goods and services, in inflation-adjusted dollars, annually from 1929 to 1945. The effects of protectionism - the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 - are roughly the same as the effects of war - World War 2. Trade protection amounts to making economic war on yourself.

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