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Thanks, Donald. We had a nice run up in the markets the past few days, but the Dow futures are now down 450+ points.

I love this guy (and voted for him), but could someone PLEASE start getting a filter on him? He’s costing millions of people real money.

BTW and FWIW - I’m as much “America First” as anyone, but there are dynamics here that are FAR beyond the Donald’s ability to manage.

Great Depression 2.0, anyone? Tariffs started the first one in the 20s. Let’s not forget history.

Get a grip.

The US ran trade surpluses in the 20s. That is why foreign tariffs hurt the US so much.

But we are running MASSIVE deficits now. We benefit from a trade war.

Thanks, Donald. We had a nice run up in the markets the past few days, but the Dow futures are now down 450+ points.

Back in 87, when the Dow was under 2000, 450+ points was a big deal. Today, given that the Dow is at 25,000, 450+ points is all in a day’s volatility. The Asian markets have issued a collective yawn.

“Great Depression 2.0, anyone? Tariffs started the first one in the 20s.”

Nonsense.

That debt deflation was well underway before the Smoot-Hawley tariffs were enacted, and deep before they took effect.

Additionally, we ran a trade surplus then, making us vulnerable to retaliation.

Great Depression 2.0, anyone? Tariffs started the first one in the 20s. Let’s not forget history.

Smoot Hawley was not the cause of the Great Depression. What caused it was the massive financial mania of the 1920’s, on which piggybacked any number of scams and hare-brained investments. Equity investors needed only $1 to buy $10 worth of stock, and margin requirements were routinely ignored by the institutions that extended those margin loans in the rush to make money in the markets.

When the markets went pear-shaped, it wasn’t just investors who were hurt, but banks and brokerages that went bust because of losses from margin loans that they floated to investors whose accounts had insufficient margin to cover their losses, meaning these losses became bank or brokerage losses. The closures of these banks and brokerages, and the refusal of the government to act as lender of last resort, led to a severe contraction in the money supply, which resulted in the Great Depression. We’re not about to make that mistake again.

“Great Depression 2.0, anyone? Tariffs started the first one in the 20s.”

Not really - that was the narrative that the Left used to blame the Depression on the actions of the Republican Hoover Administration. That smear really stuck, like their smear of Joe McCarthy (who was right about communist infiltration during the Roosevelt Administration).

Imports/exports were only about 5% of the economy, and the tariffs weren’t even passed until after the stock market had crashed, the financial system (banks) collapsed, and mass bankruptcies occurred shutting down businesses and laying off workers (the real cause).

Roosevelt’s socialist policies were a much bigger drag on the economy, and extended the depression much longer going forward, than any effect from the Smoot-Hawley tariffs.