Paul Krugman: Drop in Trade is Worse Than Great Depression

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2009/10/07/paul-krugman-in-trade-its-not-the-great-depression-its-worse/

Krugman explains in an article in the WSJ:

“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.