Lawrence: Donald Trump is proposing the ‘worst economic policy in U.S. history’

Reed Smoot was elected to the United States Senate in 1902 no voter saw his name on a ballot. Reed Smoot was elected to the Senate the old fashioned way, the way the founders thought senators should be elected, the state legislature elected and voted for Reed Smoot. Smoot will go to the United States Senate to represent the state of Utah in his 30-year career as a senator. Reed Smoot ascended to the most powerful chair of the Senate. He is president of the Senate Finance Committee with jurisdiction over both forms of federal government revenue. revenues that put money into the treasury Taxes and tariffs with the stock market crashing in 1929 and the country entering the Great Depression Reed Smoot had the

worst

idea any chairman of the Senate finance committee has ever had: it was an idea that would put end of his career in the Senate.

The House Ways and Means Committee had the same jurisdiction in the House that the Finance Committee has in the Senate. Taxes and Tariffs House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Willis Holly loved Reed smoots very bad idea that idea also ended President Holly's career in the House of Representatives in 1930, with the country sinking deeper and deeper into a

economic

depression, President Smoot and President Holly pushed the Tariff Act of 1930 through their committees and then both got it passed in the House of Representatives and the Senate and by the time it reached the president's desk for Signature it had reached became known as the Smoot Holly Tariff Act raising tariffs astronomically higher than ever on thousands of products was exactly what Donald Trump is now

proposing

as a presidential candidate

economic

s was a much less complex field By 1930, the analytical tools available to economists were far fewer and very unsophisticated compared to today, but even then these soft Holly tariffs were something economists could agree on.

More than a thousand economists signed a petition to President Herbert Hoover Republican President Herbert Hoover asking him to veto soft tariffs Holly America's most famous industrialist at the time Henry Ford knew it would be a disaster for business and a disaster for the economy and he came to the White House to try to convince Republican President Herbert Hoover. to veto the tariff bill authored by Republican Senator Reed Smoot and Republican Congressman Willis Holly and passed with overwhelming Republican support in the House and Senate Henry Ford called Holly's soft tariffs economic stupidity The CEO of JP Morgan said: "I almost went under" I got down on my knees to beg Herbert Hoover to veto the stupid Smoot Holly tariffs.

Herbert Hoover, a successful businessman in his own right, thought he knew better and enacted these Smoot Holly tariffs and in the following election Herbert Hoover lost his re-election campaign for the presidency to New York Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt in that same election 1932, when voters were living with the disaster of Reed Smoot's brilliant idea and Willis Holly's enthusiastic support for that idea. Senator Smoot and Congressman Holly lost their re-election campaigns. There is universal agreement among economists that softening Holly's tariffs made the Great Depression even worse those tariffs did not protect American jobs they killed American jobs and that meant the portrait of Willis Holly hanging in the offices of the House Ways and Means Committee along with the portraits of all the other chairmen of that committee and the portrait of Reed Smot hanging in the offices of the Senate finance committee along with the portraits of the chairman of all the other chairmen of that committee meant that those portraits would hang forever in disgrace and infamy, Smoot. and Holly hurt America more than any other Senate Finance Committee Chairman and House and Main Committee customs in

history

destroyed lives people lost their homes lost their jobs lost their hopes because of what they did Senator smoo and kressman Holly when they had no idea what they were doing, just like Donald Trump, when you hear economists now saying that Donald Trump's idea on tariffs is even worse than Smoot and Holly's, you have to know something about Smoot and Holly to really understand how bad Donald Trump's idea is.

Ford would have to go to a new rhetorical extreme to describe it because Henry Ford's phrase and economic stupidity would feel inadequate last week Donald Trump said he wants to eliminate the tax code eliminate the personal income tax and the corporate income tax and replace income tax with nothing but tariffs Donald Trump wants to eliminate income tax replace government revenue with nothing but tariffs biggest tariffs in US

history

CNBC reports Donald Trump on Thursday floated the idea of impose a fully tariff

policy

that would ultimately allow the US to get rid of income tax sources in a private meeting with the Republican presidential candidate told CNBC that all Trump supporters attending rallies Trump believe Donald Trump's big lie when he says that no one ever took money from China like I did, I took hundreds of billions of dollars in the form of tariffs and taxes, no, he didn't take a cent from China, not even a penny, it is reasonable to assume that most Trump voters believe that China pays the tariffs imposed by Donald Trump because Donald Trump says that China pays the tariffs, but in high school they should have learned and perhaps before high school for many students they should Having learned tariffs are paid by the people in the country that imposes the tariffs, that's how tariffs work, you don't need to take them up front.

High school American history placement to learn about tariffs, including these Smoot Holly tariffs. Donald Trump knows that China does not pay the tariffs it imposed. He knows American consumers pay those tariffs. They function like sales taxes for American consumers, and Donald Trump knowingly lies. when you tell your audience that about China paying the tariffs and because American consumers effectively pay the tariffs as sales taxes, an increase in tariffs means an increase in prices through sales taxes, which is the very definition of inflation, that increase in prices that Donald Trump's tariffs would bring as a result. Donald Trump is

proposing

the most inflationary idea of ​​our lives and that is just one aspect of the pain that Donald Trump would inflict with this idea that the Harvard economist Lawrence Summers, who first raised concerns about possible inflation during the Covid-19 pandemic, says it is the

worst

economic

policy

proposal in US history. .and Larry Summers knows US economic history and that means Donald Trump's idea is worse than Smoot Holly, much worse than replacing the income tax with uh.

Revenue with tariffs would be the worst macroeconomic policy proposal in US history, of course, it is a burden on the middle class and the poor who bought goods, us, goods that exist in international markets, so which is regressive, as many economic commentators have suggested, but in reality that is the least we think about. In this way, Holly's soft tariffs that caused enormous damage, some people would say made the depression great, were 6/10 of 1% of GDP if half of income tax revenue were replaced, not all as he was talking about replacing half of the income taxes. revenue with tariffs those would be taxes those would be tariffs six times uh soft Holly uh levels that have the potential to cause enormous damage to the competitiveness of every American exporter to cause enormous damage to all types of workers who use imported products in what their businesses produce to create a downward spiral as much higher prices for everything we import means consumers have less to spend on everything else creates a global economic war War while the rest of the world responds this is a recipe for mother of uh, all deer, uh inflation, stagflation is an economic condition that is not so easily achieved, of stagnant economic growth, no economic growth combined with high inflation and high unemployment, all at the same time, we have not seen stagflation in this country in the 21st century, but Donald Trump is now running. to make stagflation great again