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Trade and Tariffs--End of an Era?
This Great Graphic was tweeted by the Financial Time's John Authers, who got it from @fathomcomment. The green line is the inversion of global trade (right-hand scale). The blue line is a trade-weighted average global tariff rate. What the chart shows is that since 1990, the decline in the average tariff coincided with an increase in trade (remember green line is inverted). However, the as chart illustrates, around the Great Financial Crisis both trends stalled. I am often critical of charts that show two-time series on two different scales as a study in curve-fitting. However, this chart underscores an important ... (full story)