by Caitlin Kenney

Our editor, Uri Berliner, passes along this WSJ (sub req.'d) piece about Paul Krugman's view on international trade. The key bit:

"When it comes to international trade, actually it's not the Great Depression, it's worse," he said, presenting charts showing the decline in global trade activity falling much more steeply in the current downturn than during the Depression.

"The scale of the collapse of world trade has been so large that it has produced a degree of international linkage that surpasses what even the pessimists imagined," he said. "World trade acted as a transmission mechanism," spreading economic distress "even to those countries that had relatively healthy financial systems," such as Germany.

The U.S. Commerce Department today launched an investigation that could lead to tariffs on imports of steel pipes from China. Krugman says protectionism is one thing he isn't worried about. He said the tire tariffs imposed on China "aren't really a big deal."