General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: America's massive trade deficit: Why BIG tariffs won't hurt the United States [View all]pampango
(24,692 posts)The chart you are relying on shows that trade and the economy declined proportionately during the early part of the Depression. It also shows that trade and the economy grew together after 1934 when FDR's Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act (RTAA) of 1934 was passed. This gave FDR the ability to lower tariffs which he did.
During the first 4 yeas of the Depression from 1929 to 1933 the GDP dropped 46% from $103.6 billion to $56.4 billion, while trade decreased 66% in that period. From 1933 to 1937, the next 4 years, the GDP increased 63% while trade increased 105%.
Before the RTAA was passed the economy was crashing and trade was an increasingly smaller part of the economy. After the RTAA and the lower tariffs that FDR negotiated, trade became a bigger share of the economy which itself recovered quite dramatically.
You might want to double check your 'history' that S/H had nothing to do with hampering our economic recovery. In a way, though, you are right. After FDR emasculated S/H in 1934 its role in the recovery became a moot point.
"Do you have an opinion on why the republican high tariff bills of 1921 and 1922 did not create a prosperous middle class and equitable distribution of income in the 1920's?" Perhaps you just forgot to address this in your focus on the error of FDR's ways.