Posted on 04/14/2025 9:33:06 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The anti-Trump media are pounding the drums, trying to drive people into a panic by contending that Trump’s tariffs are a Smoot-Hawley moment combined with a 1929-style stock market crash. It is, they suggest, a perfect storm of Trump-created economic devastation. What they’re not telling people—indeed, what they may not know themselves—is that the situation is different, both as regards the stock market and what happened with the Smoot-Hawley tariffs.
I’ll start with the latter first. First, as Van A. Mobley explains with great clarity, it’s dishonest to compare Trump’s tariffs to the Smoot-Hawley Act. The difference is that, in 1930, when Congress passed the Smoot-Hawley Act, America was a creditor nation (that is, it was selling to Europe, which had been seriously damaged by World War I). This time around, in 2025, America is a debtor nation (that is, it’s buying from everyone else):
When the United States raised the Smoot-Hawley tariffs, the U.S. was the world’s greatest creditor, and by raising the tariffs, we prevented others from selling us things so they could make money and pay us back. When they didn’t pay us back, it collapsed the global financial system and helped usher in the Great Depression.
Obviously, today the circumstances are reversed. The United States is now the world’s largest debtor. If we can’t pay back our debts, the global financial system will collapse, which would be disastrous for the entire world.
Put another way, the world depends on our custom. To the foreign countries’ chagrin, though, because they’ve put barriers between our products and their markets, Trump threatened to and then did put a barrier between their products and our market.
No wonder, then, that, upon realizing that Trump wasn’t just blowing smoke with his promised reciprocal tariffs
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Here’s something else Trump probably knows that the media do not: The stock market situation is very different now than it was in 1929.
Think you could be wrong on that, i think a crash is coming...Between China and the NWO it is possible.
Because the Federal Reserve can “invent” all the digital money to loan us they want. They will never run out of “thin air” money to loan us with interest.
Fractional Reserve Banking is a problem we absolutely need to solve before we will fix anything at all.
Uh oh. When people starting say “XYZ event could never happen!” - it means its probably just around the corner.
The biggest reason is you can’t buy on 90% margin any more. Investors have their own money at stake, and are not going to push prices up to ridiculous levels.
Well. Because FDR and his ilk are not in charge anymore?
‘almost certainly’?.......................
Smoot Hawley HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CAUSE OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION OR ANYTHING TO DO WITH IT’S DURTION. SMOOT HAWLEY MEME IS A RED HERRING AND A LIE.
Nice article, thx.
Agree 100%. Smoot Hawley of 1930 didn't cause the stock market to crash in 1929. Nor did Smoot Hawley cause the dust bowls destroying agriculture (making farmers unable to pay their loans). Nor did it cause (as stated in this article) people to invest through loans. Nor did it cause the Holodomor famine in Ukraine (Stalin starving people through agricultural control). Nor did Smoot Hawley force FDR to punish businesses for success through high taxes and, thereby, convert an otherwise normal depression into a slog fest great depression.
Media thinks it is a good thing to be able to buy cheap stuff at Walmart.
The Titanic will never sink. Well, it did tonight.
1929 crash was fueled by availability of margin loans of 10 cents on the dollar. In other words one could buy $9000 worth of stocks with $900. Every can driver and barber were loading up on stocks because their brother-in-law was bragging about the profits made by trading stocks.
The problem with buying stocks on margin is if the stock you own drops let’s say 5%, your broker will issue a margin call demanding cash to bring your equity up to 10% of your holdings. If you can’t come up with the necessary cash, broker will sell your stocks.
Margin related selling can quickly develop into a tsunami of selling.
yeah
Exactly right. The economy will never “crash”, per se. Any potential crash will just be replaced with massive inflation, a stealth “crash.”
The Great Recession was the worst economy since the Great Depression. It was absolutely awful in the job market for about 9 years.
(Why we’ll almost certainly never see a 1929-style crash again)
Jinx!!
That’s what Zimbabwe, and Weimar Germany thought. Money out of thin air eventually becomes worthless. It’s not unlimited
Fools falling for fear pushed by media is the only reason we could have a 1929-style event.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.