The Smoot-Hawley lie.
A vapid attempt at rewriting history. Look at contemporary accounts of the Great Depression an trade isn't even much of an after thought as to the cause of the depression. What a joke. Pathetic. Re writing history is what Communist and Free Traitors™ like you do.
You lie about the Civil War and about the Great Depression. Is their anything you get right?
My grandparents talked about the depression a lot . Trade never came up as a subject-ever. Buying stocks with borrowed money came up all the time.
Now, now, get a grip on yourself, FRiend.
Remember your history.
The Great Depression began with a stock-market crash in October 1929.
In response, Smoot-Hawley was passed in June 1930, raising tariffs back near levels of the 1830 "Tariff of Abominations" -- which some blame for Civil War.
So, from 1929 to 1934, US imports fell $2.9 billion, while exports fell $3.3 billion, and US GDP fell 54%.
Overall world-trade fell 66% in those years, and US unemployment rose from 8% to 25%.
Is Smoot-Hawley to blame for all that?
Some say "yes", others say "no".
But here's what I know for certain: we were taught as children, and my parents believed, that Smoot-Hawley was largely responsible for making the Great Depression deeper and longer than it would otherwise have been.
That's the reason in 1992 they supported (82%) NAFTA, despite Trump the Elder's (Perot's) warnings of a "giant sucking sound" of US jobs going down the drain to Mexico.
So, now Trump the Younger promises to negotiate better deals for Americans, and bring jobs back.
Nobody should oppose that, and let's just hope Trump doesn't pull a Ross Perot on us.
Do you disagree?
central_va: "You lie about the Civil War and about the Great Depression.
Is their anything you get right? "
Of course I lie about nothing, zero, nada.
But obviously the truth hurts some people so badly they prefer more comfortable lies, and refuse to acknowledge what they so heartily dislike.
central_va: "My grandparents talked about the depression a lot .
Trade never came up as a subject-ever.
Buying stocks with borrowed money came up all the time."
Sure, for one reason, because FDR repealed Smoot-Hawley in 1934, after which the US economy began to recover, so trade was not an issue.
Today historians assign several causes for the length & depth of the Great Depression, with no single reason predominating.
I personally blame the Roosevelt administration's socialistic policies more than anything else, but still think Smoot-Hawley contributed something.
“The Smoot-Hawley lie.”
The numbers don’t support the Smoot Hawley lie. In 1929, when Wall Street crashed, foreign trade comprised less than 5% of GDP. Half of the GDP contribution came from manufacturing, half from agriculture so the impact of the manufacturing goods tariff increases from Smoot would have cost the country no more than 2.5% of GDP even if 100% of exports had been lost. Smoot was passed in 1930.
At depth of the Great Depression in 1933, GDP had fallen by 50% and manufacturing production by about 55%. Since trade comprised only 5% of GDP at the beginning of the Depression, and at the depth of the Depression trade volume was about 50% of the pre-depression level, tariffs contributed very little to the decline in economic activity. A drop in domestic demand for goods and services was the cause of the depression which was exacerbated by Federal Reserve actions to decrease the money supply.
The second evidence for tariff policy being insignificant is the performance of the US economy during the 19th century. The US pursued a high tariff trade policy throughout the 19th century. This policy was driven by two specific objectives. 1) was to protect developing US manufacturing industry from foreign competition and 2) was to fully fund the federal government from tariff and duty revenue. During the 19th century, and particularly during the 35 year period from 1865 to 1900, the USA enjoyed the highest sustained economic growth rates of any economy in modern history. The US built the greatest industrial infrastructure of any country in the world, the US became the center of innovation and technology, and the US developed a huge middle class. All of this economic growth occurred when the country was pursuing a high tariff policy.
The Smoot-Hawley argument is bogus. It is not supported by the historical evidence. Certainly the high trade deficits and declining standard of living for most US middle class households, as well as the US manufacturing sector since the adoption of zero tariff trade policies in the 1990’s should be evidence low tariffs do not necessarily lead to high economic growth.