Some lessons are never learned

A cautionary tale about protectionism from The Economist – The battle of Smoot-Hawley.

Of note:

“Smoot-Hawley did most harm by souring trade relations with other countries.”

Despite all of the arguments from the left about all of the damage that Bush was doing to the US reputation abroad, or the fact that our trade with emerging markets improves the quality of life for those whose cause the left supposedly champions, given the inevitable failure of the Big 3 bailout, we can expect to see stepped up protectionist propaganda from the unions, the left, and unfortunately, some segments of the right.