[TChris]

Today sucked. I can't even bring myself to look at my stock portfolio. But protectionism and government regulation are not the answer, and never have been.

Well put.

No matter how badly things may go in the free market, increased government involvement always makes it worse.

Always.

A university economic study even indicated that the Great Depression would have been shorter and shallower if the Govt. had left it alone.

[hedgetrimmer]

Ben Bernanke said himself that the federal reserve caused the great depression, not tariffs and not smoot-hawley. Now the fox is in the henhouse, and Bernanke is the new head of the fed. He probably was warning us of a plan when he made those remarks.

[Citizen Blade]

A university economic study even indicated that the Great Depression would have been shorter and shallower if the Govt. had left it alone.

Congress passed the Smoot-Hawley tariff in an attempt to protect American industry. That led to other countries adopting protectionist tariffs, which ended up strangling international trade. This made the Great Depression worse because it shut companies out of international markets.

At best, government is useless when it comes to "fixing" the economy. At worst, it makes the problems bigger.