"Those who don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it."
Wow. A balanced view on tariffs. Usually its one extreme or the other.
Baloney.
Smoot-Hawley hurt America because at the time, America was an exporting powerhouse.
We held the weaker negotiating hand. So everyone else, called our bluff.
We now don’t make anything, for other countries (not) to buy.
America is in a no-lose position. What - are we going to lose exports?
We already gave them all away.
COMMENCE THE TRADE WAR.
It’s long, past time.
“The Smoot-Hawley tariff of 1930 had a lot to do with the subsequent Great Depression.”
That’s often repeated but the evidence is weak. Foreign trade accounted for less than 5% of the US economy in that era. There had been higher tariff bills prior to Smoot Hawley. The stock market fell in 1929 before the passage of Smoot Hawley. And the most significant factor making the Depression severe in America was the collapse of thousands of small banks and the resulting 30% collapse of the money supply.