What are the lessons of the 1930s? Tullar.

In the long run the dipbuyers have been right - if they survived

The average levy on American imports increased from 40% in 1929 (RE: Det var mycket) to 60% by 1932, and the global trade system unravelled.

America’s Smoot-Hawley tariffs have been blamed for the Depression, but this is inaccurate. 

Economic historians instead finger unintended monetary tightening as the downturn’s cause. The Federal Reserve failed to react to bank collapses, leading money supply to contract.

The worst damage came from the division of democracies into rival trade blocs. 

In 1931 Neville Chamberlain, the British chancellor, set out to institute “imperial preferences”, creating a tariff wall around the British Empire. 

Similar policies in the Dutch and French empires also caused damage. For instance, Japanese exports were shut out of both India and Indonesia, 

then a Dutch colony, undermining liberals in Tokyo.

The Smoot-Hawley tariffs undoubtedly helped one export: anti-Americanism. Cuba, 

Britain left the gold standard in 1931.

In 2008 and 2020 swap lines between America and its allies helped prevent a repeat of the Depression. In this new, more transactional world, will such a backstop still be available?

The Economist 6 March 2025

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/03/06/it-is-not-the-economic-impact-of-tariffs-that-is-most-worrying


Hur det kom sig att England övergav guldmyntfoten 1931

Många föreställer sig gärna att Englands beslut att överge guldmyntfotens fasta växelkurs och låta pundet flyga var ett resultat av skarpsinniga överväganden hos ledningen för Bank of England, regeringen och finansdepartementet.

Men så var det inte. 

Englands beslut att lämna guldmyntfoten framkallades av att det rådde myteri inom Royal Navy, ett myteri framkallat av de lönesänkningar som regeringen beslutat om.

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2024/10/trumps-nostalgia-for-tariffs-england.html


Tillbaka till Rolfs länktips 11 mars 2025

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2025/03/rolfs-lanktips-11-mars-2025.html




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