this post was submitted on 07 May 2025
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And here I thought The Great Depression started in 1929. I'm not saying tariffs in 1930 didn't make it worse, but they didn't cause it.
Yeah unregulated capitalist economy did that. Good thing we didn't deregulate the economy since then though.
/s
2008 happened for the exact same reasons as 1929, because some of the protections put in place because of 1929 had been rolled back many years before. It wasn't as deeply bad because (dare I say) the US had a reasonable executive branch very shortly after.
But none of those protections were reimplemented. Credit default swaps are still totally a thing, for example.
CDS markets are also, currently, right now, freaking the fuck out rofl.
Ive been saying this since Trump announced his tariff / deportation policies before he got elected:
Great Depression 2.0, with nukes and climate change this time!
The "reasonable executive branch" decided that bailing out Wall Street was a good idea instead of bailing out the people. Just more Reaganomics, which always leads to economic struggle.
There's a reason why nobody under the age of 40 (and also above the age of 40) has been able to afford a house since 2008.
Obama just looks reasonable compared to the disasters of Bush Jr. and Trump.
even bush jr seemed reasonable compared to trump.
Things can have multiple causes spread out over time. The Great Depression didn't become Great until 1932 and the first causes were a flurry of bad borrowing and over-valuing of stock that started in the early 1920s.
No, you're right. 1929 came before 1930. There's much to unpack on the subject, but Smoot-Hawley did not cause The Depression. Worsened? Maybe, probably? Sure.
I would say that the Tarrifs are a further attack on the working class as they were back then. Another tool to consolidate capital.
The largest difference today is the financialization of our economy (basically meaning every company runs like a bank). This had been a method of consistently allowing the contradictions of capitalism to be delayed and passed off through layoffs and stock buybacks to further sustain the bubble of this system.
It's almost impressive at how well capitalism has adapted throughout the centuries to suck more and more away from the working class before it has to deal with a potential revolutionary "breaking point". It's definitely something Marx could have never predicted.
TLDR: I would not say that tarrifs are the cause of either of these events. I would say they are a tool of the ruling class to be used in times that capitalism hits a crisis. The cause is capitalisms contradictions itself. These extreme tarrifs are just a tool to attempt to deal with those contradictions.
Their luck's gotta run out sometime