The dance between economic liberalism and nationalistic protectionism is an old pattern as far as Western capital is concerned. In times of expansion and perceived security and stability - which as an exaggerated perception is anything but; it takes a steep and rapid ascent to present the accompanying fall and crash - you get a laxity of trade and interconnection, deepening those interdependencies that are to amplify and accelerate the growing instability of the greater system when that period of ebullience comes screeching to a halt. And then when things do go bad, and times are perceived as uncertain and tense, you get the inward-turning protectionism. And the oscillating patterns of moving back and forth between those poles produce unique patterns of their own as they are sustained over time.
