Protectionism is certain to engulf the global economy
Nothing can stop economic nationalism from turning the credit crunch into a catastrophic Depression
It is generally accepted that the Depression of the 1930s was not caused solely by crashes in asset prices and output. Their killer concomitant was beggar-thy-neighbour economic nationalism.
As this spectre rears its head once more, it is therefore not surprising that our leaders are urging us to shun siren calls for the protection of jobs, trade and industries from foreign competition.
On their side they have the theory of comparative advantage, which holds that our impending impoverishment will accelerate if the flow of labour, capital and resources is obstructed. Yet their message is doomed to be ignored. For although economic openness benefits us all collectively, it is pointless to pretend that it benefits us equally as individuals.
Those who succeed in shutting out foreigners' goods, services and workers will generally gain more from doing so than they will lose through the overall harm they will cause. This is blindingly obvious. So, why are government ministers, EU commissioners and other such worthies unable to see it?
They appear to have fallen prey to what logicians call the fallacy of division. This occurs when somebody assumes that something which is true of an entity must necessarily be true of its parts. Perhaps the most obvious of logical blunders, it has nonetheless been claiming victims ever since the Greek philosopher Anaxagoras held that whatever elements made up water would be wet.
To prevent protectionism, we should need some means of ensuring that the general weal could trump the interests of individuals. Ants seem to enjoy such a facility. People, on the other hand, do not. On the contrary, we have organised ourselves into national tribes that cannot help but build barricades against their own salvation, even though, unlike ants, we know what we are doing.
Stand by for the final, self-inflicted phase of the current catastrophe. 
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