Like it or not, we live in the world, and an isolationist economy is an oxymoron; its terms are mutually contradictory.
A global economic slowdown is on the way, according to some experts, ending the longest growth in American history. A downturn is inevitable, says standard theory, and any move to withdraw from the world is economic suicide. It happened after World War I, and led to the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Isolationism is an attractive concept to many, and is based on the group-think that "we are the best, and everyone else should do as we say." In the real world, however, with independent nations and thinkers who prefer to go their own way -- in cooperation with others -- regardless of any arrogant demands from those who see themselves as inherently better than others.
In economic and international trade terms, such arrogance usually leads to taxes on imports, intended to keep out and stifle competition from others and protect what is perceived to be "the national interest."
The problem with that, however, is that other nations also have a "national interest," and this leads to other tariffs in retaliation for the first country's self-interested import tax policy.
So the international economy is then caught in a tariff-imposed whirlpool, so down and down go both national economies. Both lose.
The economic warning bells are ringing, with alert stock market investors hearing the first chimes of approaching disaster.
And as the poet adds, "Therefore send not to ask for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee."
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