U.S. imports decreased 66% from US$4.4 billion (1929) to US$1.5 billion (1933), and exports decreased 61% from US$5.4 billion to US$2.1 billion, both decreases much more than the 50% decrease of the GDP. Thus exports minus imports which is the GDP formula declined from 1 billion to 600 million while GDP was 58.9 billion-a trivial effect on GDP of about 2/3 of 1%.
How many times must this myth be busted? Get an new lie, this one has been dispelled comrade.
Wrong. Lowering imports meant that Americans had to buy fascist-style “Blue Eagle” American crap that was overpriced. And it was crap. This left less money in the pockets of Americans to spend on other things.
People ignorantly think “imports bad” and “exports good”. Actually both are good.