America's massive trade deficit: Why BIG tariffs won't hurt the United States

[Zalatix]

153. Your S/H "correlation" is weak, tenuous, and that's being generous.

The downturn came before S/H; S/H was a leaf in the wind. That denies your theory of correlation. Correlation depends on an event precipitating something, or at least happening concurrently. Neither condition exists in the outset. Your attempt at correlation when Smoot Hawley was passed, totally fails. It did not contribute to the length or severity of the downturn.

Trade went up because the economy went up - not because of the end of S/H. On the ass end you present at best a weak correlation, much less anything substantial, and nothing close to causation. Your attempt at correlation here is as solid as saying that Fridays fall on the 13th. But hey, at least in this case, the end of S/H came at or before the recovery. You at least met THAT condition! You are still light years away from causation.

And you don't have to proclaim your policy of throwing American workers under the bus. Your actions speak loud enough. You have been a reliable voice for policies that take away American jobs. And you betcha that I wave the American flag... what other flag do you expect me to wave? And I didn't call FDR unpatriotic - I said that his views are contradicted by history.

The 1930s was also a far different world than trade in today's world. America did not run monster deficits like we do now. You keep ignoring this basic fact. Logically speaking, it is possible that Smoot-Hawley COULD damage the economy if it is passed by a nation that exports as much as they import, even though in reality it did not. Smoot-Hawley cannot at all hurt a nation that imports more than it exports unless that nation lacks the materials to build their goods at home, and America is in no way lacking. We did it before and we can do it again.

"That's what I want - for the US to be more like China, not more like Canada or Germany or Sweden."

How many TVs does Canada build in Canada? How about cell phones, computers, etc.?



Also, you're arguing a straw man. Nobody's saying that declining trade would lead to an improving economy. You just made that up as a smokescreen.