Foreign trade is getting a bad rap these days. GOP presidential candidates are talking tough on trade, while Democrats follow the protectionist predilections of unions. Former President Trump has proposed putting a 10% tariff on everything the U.S. imports. A tariff is a sales tax, pure and simple. A 10% charge would cost Americans more than $300 billion. Ouch!

Free trade is getting fewer defenders these days than free speech.

This segment of What’s Ahead warns that growing protectionism could lead to unintended tragedy, just as it did before WWII. A monstrous tariff bill enacted by the U.S. triggered the Great Depression. That terrible global contraction made possible the Nazi takeover of Germany, which led to WWII.