Smoot Hawley has ZERO relevance to America’s current situation.
At the time of Smoot Hawley, we were in the situation the Peoples Republic of China is now.
WE WILL WIN ANY TRADE WAR NOW.
We should start one. I’m completely serious.
John Hawkins: There was a lot of controversy last year about the steel tariffs that George Bush approved. Do those tariffs specifically, and tariffs in general, hurt or help our economy?
Walter Williams: They help some steel workers keep their jobs, but it turns out to be a losing proposition on balance. The reason why steel workers and their companies want tariffs on foreign steel is so they can raise the price of steel produced by U.S. companies. So, it will save some jobs in the steel industry, but one has to look at the "steel using industry." The companies in the U.S. that buy steel to produce their products are hurt by the tariffs. You find unemployment in those areas because of the higher costs of their inputs, which makes them less competitive on world markets. So what one has to look at is not the seen, but the unseen. Yes, you can see as a result of tariffs that more jobs are saved in the steel industry. What goes unseen are the jobs lost elsewhere because of the steel tariffs. Tariffs save some jobs at the expense of many, many other jobs.
A fairly succinct rebuttal, n'est-ce pas? Works for me anyway...