[CobaltBlue]

The US wasn't richest in the 19th century, that was Great Britain. But we were quite well off then.

The worst thing about Smoot-Hawley was that it triggered retaliatory tariffs in other countries, aka "beggar-thy-neighbor." Also, raising prices in a depression was a monumentally stupid thing to do, especially when the world was experiencing massive deflation.

Hoover, for reasons nobody has ever been able to explain to my understanding, thought that the way to deal with deflation was to raise prices, or at least not cut them, so his policy was for farmers and factories not to cut prices and labor not to cut wages. Insane.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

At a time when international trade accounted for 1% of the GDP, and when the US was self-sufficient in ferro-metals, heavy and rare earth metals and natural resources like oil and timber, it is incredibly difficult to believe that Smoot-Hawley had anything to do with the 33% decline in GDP experienced from 1929 to 1933.

1% was then and is still <<<<< 33%

[Hermann the Cherusker]

The US wasn't richest in the 19th century, that was Great Britain. But we were quite well off then.

I didn't say 19th century. I said that's whe we built up to being richest, which we started to be early in the 1900's. By 1916, GB was finished as a world power after wasting her young manhood on the fields of Flanders and Lorraine.