To many economists, U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs against China and other countries are reminiscent of another American trade war—one launched in 1930 that ended badly for everyone involved.
The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act introduced duties on about 900 products against Canada, the United Kingdom, and other countries. The United States was already in the throes of the Great Depression; the retaliation made it worse. It took America more than a decade to recover.
On the First Person podcast, we’re re-airing a version of our Aug. 3 interview with Dartmouth University economist Douglas Irwin, who wrote a book about Smoot-Hawley. Irwin talks about tariffs, trade wars, and that iconic scene in the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Anyone? Anyone?
