“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.
It was indeed already underway - did Smoot-Hawley make it far, far worse and much longer lasting? Yes...then Roosevelt’s policies exacerbated it even further.