Dear America,
Today, June 17, 2025, is the 95th anniversary of a singular event in the history of this nation, and for that matter the world. Ninety five years ago today, Herbert Hoover, under duress from his Republican Party and its partisans in the business community, signed into law the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which roughly coincided with the inception of the Great Depression. Ironically, it wasn't long ago that Donald Trump unveiled a raft of tariffs, concomitantly declaring that day "liberation day," manifesting the tariff policy he had announced earlier in his second administration. Since that day, Trump's tariff plans have ebbed and flowed, being in large part the inspiration for Trump's new sobriquet, TACO, an acronym for the apt phrase Trump Always Chickens Out. This time, maybe he should take a cue from history and just scrap the whole idea. I've made reference to this historical event before, and I don't want to belabor the point, but in 1930, the first time through for putatively retributory tariffs, the stock market having crashed in October 1929 and vacillated for the months between the crash and through the end of the year thereafter, the Great Depression began, leading to continuing market decline as well as decline of the rest of the economy not just here but all over the world. We were economic leaders then, just as we are now, and we can only hope that contrary to the old saw, history will not repeat itself. But if it does, we know whom to blame, don't we, America.
Your friend,
Mike
Today, June 17, 2025, is the 95th anniversary of a singular event in the history of this nation, and for that matter the world. Ninety five years ago today, Herbert Hoover, under duress from his Republican Party and its partisans in the business community, signed into law the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which roughly coincided with the inception of the Great Depression. Ironically, it wasn't long ago that Donald Trump unveiled a raft of tariffs, concomitantly declaring that day "liberation day," manifesting the tariff policy he had announced earlier in his second administration. Since that day, Trump's tariff plans have ebbed and flowed, being in large part the inspiration for Trump's new sobriquet, TACO, an acronym for the apt phrase Trump Always Chickens Out. This time, maybe he should take a cue from history and just scrap the whole idea. I've made reference to this historical event before, and I don't want to belabor the point, but in 1930, the first time through for putatively retributory tariffs, the stock market having crashed in October 1929 and vacillated for the months between the crash and through the end of the year thereafter, the Great Depression began, leading to continuing market decline as well as decline of the rest of the economy not just here but all over the world. We were economic leaders then, just as we are now, and we can only hope that contrary to the old saw, history will not repeat itself. But if it does, we know whom to blame, don't we, America.
Your friend,
Mike
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