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Protectionist Trade Practices, Closed Borders, and Isolationism — Are these a 2018 Recipe to repeat the Disasters of 1929–1945?

Stan Cromlish
3 min readDec 24, 2018

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I am researching the effect on the Great Depression of the protectionist tariffs instituted with the Smoot-Hawley Act and whether or not the newly established tariffs could have the same impact on the US economy in 2018.

Could the Great Recession of 2008 be a mirror of the Depression of 1920–1921 that occurred after World War I? In October 1929, the market lost 25% over two days, and in just the last week the market fell 22% on December 21, 2018, which is significant and could be foreshadowing the possibility of economic collapse.

History has an eerie way of repeating itself. I am concerned that the last time the country imploded financially was due to policies enacted between 1919 and 1929. In those years, we implemented immigration quotas which led to a rise in illegal immigration, instituted protectionist trade practices, and preached isolationism after bailing Europe out of World War I.

Photo by Bryce Barker on Unsplash

With the requirement of a border wall to prevent illegal immigration, the implementation of protectionist trade policies, and…

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Stan Cromlish
Stan Cromlish

Written by Stan Cromlish

From personal essays about life lessons, writing, politics, etc. to historical fiction, I write about life today and life past. Check out stancromlishbooks.com

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