Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act - Wikipedia
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    • Justin@lemmy.jlh.nameEnglish
      5·
      3 months ago

      There is some contention about whether this can necessarily be attributed to the tariff. The Great Depression was already in motion before Smoot-Hawley, mainly due to financial instability, falling demand, and poor banking practices. However, the tariff worsened the crisis by shrinking global trade, hurting farmers, and reducing employment in export-dependent industries. Had it not passed, the Depression still would have occurred, but perhaps with less severity.

      Monetarists, such as Milton Friedman, who emphasized the central role of the money supply in causing the depression, considered the Smoot–Hawley Act to be only a minor cause of the Great Depression in the United States.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot–Hawley_Tariff_Act

      yeah maybe my nuance leaned too much to the no side, but I wanted to explain tariffs a bit. Trump tariffs are not protectionism or coercion, they’re just stupid.

      • WraithGear@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6·
        3 months ago

        I was thinking about the protectionism though… like in order for the tariff to work, the us would have to also manufacture the good that is being tariffed. But we don’t produce a lot here…and also even if we did… i guarantee the us business would jack up the prices to be competitive with the foreign price After tariffs and pocket the money. Making the whole thing moot.

          • WraithGear@lemmy.worldEnglish
            5·
            3 months ago

            Yea no matter how you slice it, there are no good use of tariffs, and if one were to insist, then it would only be like just barley enough to push up the price above parity, and only on very select items. But then if the other country does it back it goes in favor to the nation that is more industrial.

        • jonjuan@programming.devEnglish
          1·
          3 months ago

          I think you can make a very good argument that the Smoot Hawley tarrifs were the main cause of Great Depression

      • Match!!@pawb.socialEnglish
        3·
        3 months ago

        “both sides” but the two sides are “it was bad” and “it was disastrously bad”

      • humanspiral@lemmy.caEnglish
        1·
        3 months ago

        Most people here love blaming Stalin for more than he is responsible for. The Soviet famine, was a global famine, and its roots are in this Smoot Hawley tariff act. Stalin gets blamed for upholding communist principles instead of submitting to Kulak farmer extortionist pricing. But he was also saddled with US pressure to repay debts with food. The tariff origins are that throughout the world, reciprocal tariffs meant not growing any surplus food, because you couldn’t sell it abroad, and then making too much food just made prices lower. A bit of a drought somewhere, and FUBAR.