Origins of World War II

He’s at it again. Federated Farmers president Don Nicolson,
whose demonization of trade protectionism I mentioned
the other day, is back in the New Zealand Herald saying,
and I quote, ‘Protectionism is emerging from its economic
crypt and seeping back into legislation from Cairo to
Washington.’ Oh, come on, Don. Don’t be a big baby. Full
marks for a colourful figure of speech, but go to the bottom
of the class for half-baked alarmism. After parroting the
New Right mantra that it was not the 1929 Wall St crash
that created the 1930s Depression but the protectionist
response to it, he then produces this extraordinary non
sequitur from his cocked hat: ‘The United States Smoot-
Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 was a template for economic
suicide. One emulated from Paris to Wellington. It created
a crisis so severe that it took a world war to end it’ [my
italics]. There’s not much more to say after that. Don, I
think, should go back to the farm and have a long lie-down.