Smoot–Hawley Revisited
The Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 deepened the Great Depression by triggering global retaliation. Trump’s second-term tariff regime echoes this mistake—now compounded by executive overreach and institutional disregard.
The downturn is real and accelerating. Global markets tolerate the damage largely because they expect U.S. instability to be self-limiting through political backlash and institutional resistance.
Promises Broken
- Prices reduced — failed
- Manufacturing reshored — failed
- Employment growth — failed
- Debt reduction — failed