𝗧𝗔𝗥𝗜𝗙𝗙𝗦 𝗠𝗔𝗗𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗘 "𝗚𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗧 𝗗𝗘𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗦𝗜𝗢𝗡" 𝗠𝗨𝗖𝗛 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗦𝗘~𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗟𝗟 𝗔 𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗥𝗜𝗕𝗟𝗘 𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗔

The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, while not considered to be the cause of the Great Depression, certainly made things much worse.

The act, designed to protect American businesses and farmers, raised import duties on products coming into the United States, but then resulted in other countries adding retaliatory tariffs, drastically reducing global trade and making the depression much worse.

So, Americans ended up paying more for goods imported from other countries, while American companies found their products to be less appealing as they became subject to pay-back tariffs.

Tariffs were a terrible idea then and a terrible idea now.