In a thorough study of literature about the Depression, economic historian Eugene White claims that the rate increases were not sufficiently aligned with sagging stocks. But White’s 1994 work did not take into consideration the DEFLATION that had been going on for several years. Doug Irwin calculated that the deflation-adjusted impact of S-H was a stunning five percent of GNP. In perspective, that would be 2x higher than Katrina, four times worse than the economic impact of 9/11, and five times worse than the impact of the Navigation Acts blamed for starting the American Revolution.
Now, I’m not saying other things were’t going on to cause the Great Depression. Milton Friedman himself partly blamed bad monetary policy like I think you might have argued before, as well as Hoover’s policies, agricultural bank failures and deflation. H-S did have a big impact but perhaps it wasn’t a main cause, but it’s impact was not small by any stretch.
I believe in free trade but that doesn’t make one a globalist, just someone who sees the value of comparative advantage. Does that mean I’m against all tariffs? Absolutely not. If a country imposed tariffs on us or sub sizes an industry we should reciprocate. But it should be a Industry by industry or country by country basis. They should be targeted in other words to minimize their deflationary effect on the economy.