PROTECTIONISM: Like Hoover, Obama is abdicating U.S. trade leadership.

UPDATE: A hedge-fund reader emails: “Obama has systematically repeated every mistake made by both Hoover and FDR in prolonging the economic downturn. Is it a surprise he wants to reprise the Smoot-Hawley debacle? The pattern of known policy errors – from hyper- regulatory zeal to intimidation of investors to
currency debasement – is so clear and obvious, it can’t possibly be accidental.” I’ve been hearing this sort of thing a fair bit lately, but I think that’s giving ’em too much credit . . . .