Fergus Finlay: Trump’s tariff chaos risks global economic damage, but will it even last?

Trump’s reckless trade war may not last — but the economic and human damage could echo through history again

Huge crowds outside the Sub Treasury Building (now Federal Hall National Memorial) and the statue of George Washington, opposite the Stock Exchange, New York, at the time of the Wall Street Crash, October 1929. Picture: Getty Images

There’s a side of me that is desperately worried about Trump’s tariff madness. But there’s another side of me that is wondering why the entire world has its knickers in a twist about this guy.

The bit of me that is fascinated by history is the frightened bit. Nearly 100 years ago, though very few people saw it coming, the world was on the edge of an economic cliff. America was celebrating then, and all the accounts of the time suggest that the place was going mad. The period was known as the roaring twenties. It was a decade marked by massive spending and consumption, all fuelled by the thought that growth would never stop.