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Mark still imagines himself to be an expert on tariffs, and ‘expert’ that he is he thinks they are Evil and that Smoot-Hawley caused the Great Depression.

If he did know much, which he doesn’t, he would know that the Fordney-McComber Tariff of 1922 was virtually identical to Smoot-Hawley and of course was followed by the Roaring 20s.

Gee, how did that happen? Well it happened because no serious student of economic history believes that Smoot-Hawley caused the Depression. It was correlative with the Depression, not causative.

The prime driver of the Great Depression was the collapse in the American banking system, which little Mark doesn’t know because he’s no student of economic history. Try picking up Friedman and Schwartz’ ‘Economic History of the United States’ and read the chapter ‘The Great Contraction’ you big dummy, and in the meantime shut your piehole about tariffs.

” he would know that the Fordney-McComber Tariff of 1922 was virtually identical to Smoot-Hawley and of course was followed by the Roaring 20s.

Gee, how did that happen? Well it happened because no serious student of economic history believes that Smoot-Hawley caused the Depression. It was correlative with the Depression, not causative.”

Why I endeavor to read many of your posts. In the top 10 of smart FReepers.

A more accurate measure of the increase in tariff rates attributable to Smoot-Hawley can be found in a study carried out by the U.S. Tariff Commission. This study calculated the ad valorem rates that would have prevailed on actual U.S. imports in 1928, if the Smoot-Hawley rates been in effect then. These rates were compared with the rates prevailing under the Tariff Act of 1922, known as the Fordney-McCumber Tariff. The results are reproduced in Table 1 for the broad product categories used in tariff schedules and for total dutiable imports.

Table 1
Tariffs Rates under Fordney-McCumber vs. Smoot-Hawley
Equivalent ad valorem rates
Product................Fordney-McCumber.......Smoot-Hawley
Chemicals...........................29.72%................36.09%
Earthenware and Glass.......48.71...................53.73
Metals..................................33.95..................35.08
Wood...................................24.78..................11.73
Sugar...................................67.85...................77.21
Tobacco...............................63.09...................64.78
Agricultural Products..........22.71..................35.07
Spirits and Wines................38.83.................. 47.44
Cotton Manufactures...........40.27..................46.42
Flax, Hemp, and Jute...........18.16..................19.14
Wool and Manufactures.......49.54..................59.83
Silk Manufactures................56.56..................59.13
Rayon Manufactures............52.33..................53.62
Paper and Books..................24.74..................26.06
Sundries...............................36.97................. 28.45
Total.....................................38.48................. 41.14

Source: U.S. Tariff Commission, The Tariff Review, July 1930, Table II, p. 196.

By this measure, Smoot-Hawley raised average tariff rates by about 2 ½ percentage points from the already high rates prevailing under the Fordney-McCumber Tariff of 1922.