Why Trump’s tariffs are in trouble

since that Act was approved in 1930 how can you now say it is null and void - this is what happens when you give power to different parts of the guvment that the Constitution did not specifically give- however that Act was approved by Congress so it seems to me it has basis in fact. Some of these Congressionally approved acts get forgotten about over the years and then when they are found and used the party not in power has a conniption fit.

 

You realize what the act that you are citing is generally known as, right? It is legitimately viewed as one of the biggest disasters in US policy history and one of the primary reasons that the Stock Market Crash of 1929 turned into the Great Depression. It is not forgotten.

 

Bill, are you familiar enough with the details of this act to determine how many countries Trump could impose tariffs up to 50% on taking into account agreements the US has made with the world trade organization and with other countries?

 

jack - I am glad Trump is taking an America first track. We have allowed all these countries screw us for way too long - it is high time we leveled the ball field

 

Hook, line and sinker.

 

Although probably not an actual verbatim quote from Andrew Jackson it does reflect the way he felt and Trump certainly feels the same way.

 

Trump's imposition of tariffs besides being most likely unconstitutional given that under Article I it is the role of Congress to impose taxes not the president is punishing American consumers and corporation who will being paying the tariffs much more so than it's punishing the countries importing goods into the US. If the SCOTUS upholds the authority that Trump thinks that he has expect Smoot Hawley 2.0.

The tariffs initially appeared to be a success; according to historian Robrt Sobel, "Factory payrolls, construction contracts, and industrial production all increased sharply." However, larger economic problems loomed in the guise of weak banks. When the Creditanstalt of Austria failed in 1931, the global deficiencies of the Smoot–Hawley Tariff became apparent.[12]

U.S. imports decreased 66% from $4.4 billion (1929) to $1.5 billion (1933), and exports decreased 61% from $5.4 billion to $2.1 billion. US gross national product fell from $103.1 billion in 1929 to $75.8 billion in 1931 and bottomed out at $55.6 billion in 1933.[21] Imports from Europe decreased from a 1929 high of $1.3 billion, to $390 million in 1932. U.S. exports to Europe decreased from $2.3 billion in 1929 to $784 million in 1932. Overall, world trade decreased by some 66% between 1929 and 1934.[22]

Unemployment was 8% in 1930 when the Smoot–Hawley Act was passed but the new law failed to lower it. The rate jumped to 16% in 1931 and to 25% in 1932–1933.[23] There is some contention about whether this can necessarily be attributed to the tariff.[24][25] 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.​

While the Trump tariffs will not have an effect nearly as severe as Smoot-Hawley we can expect a return of stagflation for the first time since the 1970s.

 

Our resident antagonizer is clearly an economics expert. He buys his own gasoline, and he knows how to shop at Walmart. If Trump says the tariffs are working and our MAGA experts confirm it, who are we to question their economic expertise? Most likely, they have plotted the key variables on a Laugher Curve, divided by the Cost of Living Index, and multiplied by the number of letters in the current month. If the number is greater than one, then Trump's tariffs are CLEARLY working. If they can't calculate an answer, the tariffs are still working, but not quite as clearly.

 

In other words, you do not know the details of that 1930 Act.

 

Under Trump we are going to :

- kick out millions of undocumented workers
- bring all kinds of jobs back by using tariffs (even though we're kicking out millions of workers and have full employment)
- lower inflation by drilling for more oil (even though American consumers will face higher inflation by paying the tariff taxes, and ostensibly would be paying more for products made by higher-earning Americans)
- increase our exports to all of these countries .... ostensibly purchased by foreigners including workers who have lost their jobs to new Trumpy American manufacturing
- keep foreigners from illegally coming to our country, even though we are costing jobs in many of theirs, lowering their standard of living, and would have a huge unmet demand for labor.


Can anyone imagine believing a single bit of this Trumpy voodoo economics dipshittery?

This is what it looks like to be governed by a criminal reality TV host, to whom everything is a zero-sum game.

 

so far jo jo it is happening, in-spite of the fact that you are hoping for failure