[alloysteel]

Senator Rand Paul is stuck in 1930, when the Smoot-Hawley tariffs were badly mismanaged and misused. Donald has an entirely different view of tariffs and how they are to be managed. This is a negotiation ploy by the Trump Administration, to bring about FAIR and equitable means to level the playing field.

The simple thrust is this: bring the manufacturing of these goods BACK to the US, and you will escape the tariffs. This investment in employment and manufacturing within the US results in a net inflow of investment, and vastly shortens up supply lines.

Of course Senator Paul knows this. He is simply being contrarian.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

::...the Smoot-Hawley tariffs were badly mismanaged and misused... This is a negotiation ploy by the Trump Administration, to bring about FAIR and equitable means to level the playing field. “

All of the countries impacted by the US tariff scheme NEED the U.S. consumer to continue in the global “trade” system.
Trump knows that we hold all the power.
Tariffs are a fee to get access to the U.S. markets, the largest consumer population in the world.

[Tell It Right]

I'm tired of the trope that Smoot-Tawley created the Great Depression.

We're supposed to forget that the Federal Reserve raised rates in the late 1920s. We're supposed to forget that the press made out like Republican Hoover was messing up the stock market and bank system (the bank scare). We're supposed to forget that 1930 had a severe drought. We're also supposed to forget that many investors invested with credit (borrowing money to invest) and couldn't handle an otherwise modest downturn for a few years. We're also supposed to forget that before Smoot-Tawley, European countries had sky high tariffs on American products. Last but not least, we're supposed to forget that Europe in between the wars had overproduction of agriculture (their food prices were too low to support their farmers) and, thus, Europe had trouble paying back their loans to American banks.

All of that before FDR came into power and entrenched the depression into the Great Depression by punishing businesses and successful people.

[central_va]

Smoot Hawley is a lie and a myth. It is contrived fantasy to blame the GD on a silly little trade bill that affected very little of the US economy. It is an attempt by the Adam Smithian cult to re-write history. Sad, stupid and dangerous...

[Fledermaus]

Tge Feds monetary policy did all the damage.

They squeezed the money supply by a third leaving no capital for investments. Lead to job losses.