[Yet_Again]

The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of June 1930, signed by President Herbert Hoover, dramatically raised U.S. tariff rates and is often cited as a contributing cause of the Depression.

Pat Buchanan lays this myth to rest very effectively here: http://buchanan.org/blog/the-isolationist-myth-165

[LS]

Pat’s as wrong as ever. Doug Irwin, an actual ECONOMIST, did a powerful study showing that when you combine the actual rate hikes with the deflation (another government-induced problem), the impact of the Smoot-Hawley tariff was a whopping 5% hit on GNP by 1935 or 1936. To put that in perspective, Smoot-Hawley had a more devastating impact on the U.S. than Katrina and 9/11 put together, and almost double that of the Arab Oil Embargo in the 1970s. You might also look at the studies (again, by actual SCHOLARS) by Crucini and Kahn on the impact of Smoot-Hawley Tariff.

[Graybeard58]

Pat Buchanan lays this myth to rest very effectively here: http://buchanan.org/blog/the-isolationist-myth-165

What did Pat have to say? Wait a minute, let me guess. The Jews caused it right?