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Economics Professor Douglas Irwin appeared on Bloomberg’s Surveillance Midday to discuss his new book, Trade Policy Disaster: Lessons from the 1930s.

“Largely, we’ve avoided (repeating) the disaster of the 1930s,” said Irwin, the Robert E. Maxwell ’23 Professor of Arts and Sciences.

Irwin elaborated, saying countries were able to prevent the 2008 financial crisis from becoming a second Great Depression through expansionary policy and central bank action.

“That’s exactly what they couldn’t do in the 1930s. It was not only bad for the economies of the day, it was also very bad for trade policy.”

Watch the full video, published on 12/14/11 by Bloomberg’s Surveillance Midday.