We still get a lot of pushback from friends and adversaries alike on the issue of whether the Smoot-Hawley tariff, signed into law by Herbert Hoover, was a major cause of the Great Depression. It inarguably was. The chart below from Laffer Associates shows what happened to the global trading system in the wake of the giant tariff. Interesting too that we ran a trade SURPLUS during the Depression.

You can also see that what poured gasoline on the fire was when Hoover more than doubled income tax rates to try to balance the budget in 1931 and 1932. Did we mention that Smoot, Hawley and Hoover were all Republicans? No wonder Democrats ran against Hoover Republicans for the next 40 years.