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What Happened the Last Time the US Implemented Sweeping Tariffs? A Global Economic Crisis.
History is rhyming again, and not in a good way.
My wife and I were going to retire overseas this year. We have my military retirement, we both draw Social Security, and we both have the very best health insurance in the nation: TriCare (the military health insurance system). We were about to travel and enjoy the remainder of our golden years together. And today we both decided that no, I don’t dare quit my job. Why?
Tariffs. Not the targeted tariffs that have been used throughout the modern era, but the sweeping tariffs imposed by Trump on all goods from our biggest trading partners. Those nations have already begun implementing retaliatory tariffs. And golly gee whiz, guess what’s going to happen next? It’s all there in our nation’s economic history.
Have you heard of the Smoot-Hawley Act? That’s the ‘tariff bill’ referenced in the New York Times headline above from June 18th, 1930. What else do you see? “Senate seeks cuts by flexible clause” — i.e. “we’re slashing government spending!” And most important of all is the smaller headline: “Belgian Government Protests To Washington on the Tariff”. In other words, “Retaliatory tariffs are on the way!”
