I think "twist" is too kind of a word. If someone says, "it's worth taking a look at" and someone else reports that as they now support the minimum wage hike, in my heart and mind, that qualifies as a lie, simple and downright. And frankly, I never thought I'd see the day Levin would behave like this.
Are you going to believe Mark, or your lying ears?
SPEAKING OF TRUMP, HE IS DOING A SPEECH NOW :)
I am not wasting my time with Levin!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3444297/posts
More phony tariff “history” out of the blowhard lawyer.
For the first time ever he mentioned the Fordney-McCumber tariff of 1922, I assume because of my posts about it here recently.
Fordney-McCumber differed from Smoot-Hawley by only 2 1/2%, so the dope denounces it while never mentioning that it preceded the Roaring 20s- an inconvenient fact for clowns who then want to blame the Great Depression on Smoot-Hawley.
So Levin’s fallback position today is that the F-M tariff killed American agriculture exports.
Well American agriculture exports did indeed suffer in the 1920s. But it had nothing to do with the tariff- it was the result of European farming returning after the destruction that they suffered during World War One. Inconvenient history ignored by Mark but known by all students of that decade.
Mark has all of our trade partners enacting their own 1920s tariffs “in response” to American tariffs. In fact they were enacting their own tariffs for the same reasons that we did our first one in 1789- to protect their infant industries, in this case cars and radios. But why let such details spoil a good story, Mark certainly doesn’t.
Then for the coup de grace Mark returns to his old favorite, that Smoot-Hawley kicked off the Great Depression.
Well economic historians date the start of the Great Depression at the cyclical peak in August, 1929. Smoot-Hawley was signed into law in June, 1930. Yes, that’s nearly a year later. But not to worry, in Levin World the arrow of time can run backwards and causes can come long after effects. Or something.
But let’s assume that Levin’s goofy theory of cause and effect is true. And let’s assume that Smoot-Hawley shuts down all trade completely. That would destroy our economy right?
Well in 1930 international trade was 5% or less of American GNP. America was for all intents a self-sustaining economy. You could have wiped out all international trade and not had a Depression.
Because trade and tariffs were not at the root of the Great Depression. A massive collapse in the American banking system was, something Mark never mentions. Not because he’s trying to hide that fact, but because he really very ignorant about economic history and his ignorance extends to his blathering about tariffs and the Great Depression.
Like with Glenn Beck, you listen to his ‘history lessons’ at your own peril.