Posted on 04/03/2025 3:24:39 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Carey Stewart Cezar, a retired nurse who lives in Baltimore, watched with dismay Wednesday as President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on imports.
Cezar voted for Vice President Kamala Harris in last year’s presidential election and opposes Trump’s economic policies. But she said she has another reason to be skeptical of Trump’s tariffs: She is a descendant of one of the legislators behind the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, a law that many economic historians believe worsened the Great Depression.
“I think it’s a terrible idea and potentially devastating,” Cezar, 70, said in a phone interview Wednesday, a few hours after Trump announced plans to impose duties on goods brought into the United States from other countries. “I think people don’t remember all the harm caused by tariffs in our history.”
Cezar’s great-grandfather was Rep. Willis C. Hawley, an Oregon Republican who sponsored the 1930 tariff act with Sen. Reed Smoot, a Utah Republican. The act, which President Herbert Hoover signed into law roughly a year into the Great Depression, increased duties, set off a trade war and — in the eyes of many historians — aggravated the effects of the era’s economic downturn.
Cezar, whose great-grandfather died in 1941, said the law was part of her early education, too. “The Smoot-Hawley Act is part of my family’s history, and I learned about it as a kid,” she said.
She recalled that her mother was “deeply embarrassed” by the last name Hawley. She was ashamed of being linked with a law that had intensified economic devastation, Cezar said.
“She was happy to get a new name when she got married,” Cezar added.
Cezar has kept some family mementos from that dark historical chapter, including ration tickets for food and basic goods such as shoes.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
And....?
Wow. A retired nurse chimes in on tariffs. Impressive. Everybody pay attention.
Read more here: Smoot-Hawley and the Depression
What mechanism or negotiating tactic exists to convince our trade partners to lower them?
This is news? The opinion of the great granddaughter of a depression era congresscritter???
Jeez...
And be sure to read the comments on the thread.
Bkmk
I recall reading in one of Milton Freidman’s books about how the Depression had a lot more to do with FDR’s meddling with the banks and related issues. The real nasty years of that time were years like 1933, ‘34, and ‘35 due to Roosevelt and his policies.
What a bunch of whiners. TDS or not.
Rand Paul. This non qualified hair styling compromised screecher they dragged out of the woodwork. MSDNC hosts
Trump is a great economics and finance mind. He studied at Wharton. His education is not nepo. He amassed a great fortune NOT by robber baroning, not by taking money from wink nod DNC or RNC donors and not by cheating but by knowing finance and using what he knows
Whatever he does here is going to work
None of these idiots have said word one about the congress and the last few execs running up 40 trillion in debt
Uh....who cares!
Listen to them squeal...
just because her great grandpa messed up doesn’t mean same will happen today with different people, situations etc.
As we know, some times it’s other things (or people) connected to the main thing that contributes to the main thing not doing as intended.
Right! I read “The Forgotten Man” by Amity Shlaes that goes into that stuff too.
And voted for harris too.
I read no further
This article is a perfect example of why “Arguments from Authority” are easily refuted.
Agree. Today is Totally different now. US hasn’t had a trade surplus since 2001.
this woman lived a life of shame because of hearing things from her mom? name change was her savior? you can’t escape self imposed stupid.
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