The David Lin Report · Wednesday, July 1, 2026
EJ Antoni suggested that the current trend towards protectionism, characterized by increasing tariffs and sanctions, resembles the 'beggar thy neighbor' economics of the 1930s. He noted that while the pace is slower now, such policies historically drove up consumer prices without global benefit.
“I think is this just a global trend where we're headed into protectionism despite or regardless of whichever administration is in power, the Democrats or the Republicans?”
“You know, it's a really good question. Unfortunately, it does kind of feel that way. It feels like the 1930s all all over again in that sense where, you know, it was it was just beggar thy neighbor uh economics.”
“all of these different countries kept putting tariffs on each other and then they they had they essentially were doing competitive devaluations of their currencies. Uh, and it it continued to drive up consumer prices without actually making anybody better off globally speaking.”