Posted On: Tuesday - April 8th 2025 9:57AM MST
In Topics: History Movies Trump Pundits Economics
They say history doesn't repeat, it turns out, but it sure does rhyme. I believe we may see fake history rhyming too, with this story being an example. I really hope not - you'd think the internet would be of help this time around.
Our commenter and the illustrious pundit E.H. Hail has a new post out that is right in Peak Stupidity's wheelhouse. We like the basic Economics (Econ 101, turns to garbage by Econ 102) discussions here.*
When it comes to tariffs, a big subject as of late, to put it mildly, I'd say I changed my mind away from the half-century long free-trade, anti-Protectionism, anti-Nationalist mindset only in the last decade or two. I'd agreed with Pat Buchanan and Ross Perot in the 1990s, but it still didn't sink in that America may really get screwed by free, but especially non-fair-free trade. At this point, I've been even been disagreeing with the great Ron Paul, which does make me wonder ...
Mr. Hail's post has commentary on, and includes a nicely presented (yellowed pages even - I like it) full chapter and more from a book by one Alfred Eckes on, tariffs over American history. The Peak Stupidity Community discussed this book, after Adam Smith kindly provided links to on-line copies under this post.
The entire book, Opening America's Market, is worth reading. Of particular interest, of course, is Chapter 4, as the entire chapter is about the Smoot-Hawley tariffs enacted 95 years ago, celebrated in notoriety in civic mythology** and even fun 1980s John Hughes movies. The post is Alfred Eckes on the Smoot–Hawley Tariff of 1930 and its long-lasting civic mythology. Mr. Hail would welcome more comments there, I'm sure. The interesting commentary by Mr. Hail is something I won't repeat, but I'll add what I can here.
Smoot-Hawley is named after the 2 sponsors of that tariff bill, Mr. Reed Smoot in the Senate and Mr. Willis*** Hawley in the House.**** One might notice that tariffs being discussed and ranted about now don't have said 2 sponsors, hence no 2 names either. Hmmm, don't all bills normally have the 2 sponsor's names like that? Oh, wait, there IS no bill being discussed. These new tariffs are simply being accurately called the "Trump Tariffs", as, since the UniParty Congress had been weak and unhelpful - at least for Conservatives - as of late (meaning, say, 30 years), Trump has taken on this power to levy tariffs himself. I don't blame him one bit. Peak Stupidity has discussed his being akin to a King or El Caudillo Yanqui (per Mr. Hail), but that's nothing new anymore...
It's been 5 years short of a century since President Hoover signed the not-particularly out-of-line Smoot Hawley tariff bill. Though it passed after the FED meddling had already greatly exacerbated the fallout from the crashes of 1929, somehow Smoot-Hawley! has become the bogeyman for the entire Great Depression. Never mind Roosevelt's Socialist policies ... ahh, too long a subject for this post.
I like Mr. Hail's term used in his article, "Civic Mythology". Indeed, and we may as well abbreviate it, SHCTGD, is century-long civics myth. I remember it from my HS history. Though I didn't drool on my desk, we were not much more excited to hear about the causes of the Great Depression than the absent Ferris Bueller's classmates - SAVE FERRIS! - as seen below. I imagine the clip below has gotten a lot of views lately (just noticed that a search starting with"Ferris Bueller..." has "tariff scene" as the first completion - bet that's new), and Peak Stupidity would not be ourselves if we didn't feature this Ben Stein scene.***** from that fun 1980s movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
This is a slightly longer excerpt of the Ben Stein as boring HS Econ teacher, as anyone who remembers the Reagan/Bush years will enjoy the ending. Anyone? Anyone? Mr. Hail? Anyone?
This near-century-old fake history reminds me of another piece of civic mythology, the use of the term "McCarthyism". Peak Stupidity has been all over that myth afterreading Ann Coulter on the subject but more so after reading and reviewing the thorough and informative M. Stanton Evans book about Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy Blacklisted by History. It's been only 70-odd years that this one has been in use. I'm about beyond the point of correcting people anymore when they use the term. It's a myth, but it's sticking. No, Joe McCarthy was NOT the guy the term connotes, personality-wise, and he was RIGHT - there were (still are) Communists in the US State Department and elsewhere in the Feral Government.
These Trump tariffs are being said to be the 2nd Coming of Smoot-Hawley. The Chinese are mad. Good! The Europeans are mad. Good! Consumers will have to pay more for that Cheap China-made Crap, or even be unable to afford it. Good! In fact, that's the point. The stock market is way down. Good!
Americans' main claim to wealth, other than their granite/marble counter-topped-kitchened houses is their 401-k's. They're down. Wait, what? Yes. Peak Stupidity's newsletter, had we one, would have told you long ago to get your money out of anywhere the Feral Gov't has control of. I've been officially losing my ass personally, but ZeroHedge people got me worried years ago that the Feds may someday require portions of that money be in Treasury Bonds to prop up the system. We'll see about that or other rules that may change one's access to "his" money, but I'm not playing. Tough luck, people.
Peak Stupidity has featured dozens of posts about the financial doom caused by a century of financial stupidity. "What can't go on, won't go on., some dude said, and the music may stop during this Trump-47 term. The Trump tariffs are LONG LONG overdue. He is in the right. However, depending on timing, will the coming crash be blamed on the Trump Tariffs? Why wouldn't it be? I wouldn't be surprised it there are Globalists in the market right now purposely selling off to help version 2.0 of this myth keep going, maybe for another century.
Will this fake history rhyme stick? Anyone? Does anyone know the term for what's going on? "Civic" something ... anyone? "Civic myth-"something... Anyone?
PS: Yeah, I know, that movie was somewhat juvenile, but that and Fast Times at Ridgemont High are classic 1980s Americana. I will point out here that Mr. Hail, in a more serious vein, has a great discussion on the long mid/late-20th through present-time push for Free Trade as an economic given. I got suckered into that like most other people that think about economics. Pat Buchanan never did - he's mentioned in Mr. Hail's post too. Go read, man!
* We WILL get to that post on Deflation. Amazingly, last week I found that old news clipping on the subject out of a Nov. 2001 WSJ, with my writing "WTF?" on top in pen. It's a little yellowed but readable. I'm even more miffed by the writer's stupidity than I was 23 1/2 years ago!
** A GREAT term, that I will credit to Mr. Hail, unless I hear otherwise.
*** It's been said that Congressman Willis C. Hawley originally wanted to levy high tariffs on vacuum cleaners, but President Hoover nixed this, saying, "Whatchu' talkin' 'bout, Willis?!"
**** I wrote in the comments in our discussion 3 1/2 weeks ago that that Alfred Eckes spent a couple of pages in the chapter explaining whose name SHOULD have gone first and why. It was kind of esoteric but fun. Note too that Ben Stein***** in the movie called it the Hawley-Smoot tariff bill. Maybe there should be a debate on this between the two economists about it.
***** Ben Stein was an academic and political wonk himself before becoming an actor. I tried to find his actual views on this tariff issue but had no luck so far. Though he started out working for GOP Presidents, Mr. Stein's views have been all over the map.
Comments:
Moderator
Friday - April 11th 2025 4:40PM MST
PS: That was some conversation you had with Gemini, Adam. Interesting how it "thinks".
You might like this video about a State law requiring the return of R&R'd car parts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJV4zQdPbzI
You might like this video about a State law requiring the return of R&R'd car parts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJV4zQdPbzI
Moderator
Thursday - April 10th 2025 6:52AM MST
PS: Mr. Hail, I realized last night that I'd written a short post with just my own opinion about tariffs back in '18. Yes, it did have (just a still) Ben Stein in it, of course.
https://www.peakstupidity.com/index.php?post=736
Tariffs in American history
In this post on this site, I just saw that I linked to a Pat Buchanan column from recently (at the time) which was the following - not the same one you linked to under Adam Smith's Econ cartoon post. Is this one you linked to? I'll check on your site. Anyway, here:
https://www.unz.com/pbuchanan/did-tariffs-make-america-great/
"Did Tariffs Make America Great?" July 22nd of '18
Here is my one comment on there that's not just a thanks or disagree with someone:
***********************************
That was a great concise history of tariffs in our nation’s history. I should have more about this before, but I did know that America’s almost sole source of revenue for a lot of HER history has been the tariffs. This was before the abomination of Amendment XVI was passed, allowing the Feral Government to tax individuals for basically whatever the hell it wants. We ran pretty well on that much smaller amount – it prohibited the rise of the great infernal beast we have now for more than a century.
I’m nothing if not Libertarian, but Libertarians, if they have any brains, should be Constitutionalists. It’s not like liberty that the US has known in the past gets allowed all over the world. This column has pushed me a bit more, but, yeah, if it’s between some trans-national deluded Libertarians, and the Founders of our country, this is a no brainer – I’m going with the latter, Pat..
One more thing – you don’t see that much humor thrown into Mr. Buchanan’s articles, at least not that I can recall. I liked this one:
However, as the blazing issue of that day was Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton, it was no easy task to steer interviewers around to the McKinley Tariff.
Heh!
***********************************
ctrl-f "Hail" yields nada.
https://www.peakstupidity.com/index.php?post=736
Tariffs in American history
In this post on this site, I just saw that I linked to a Pat Buchanan column from recently (at the time) which was the following - not the same one you linked to under Adam Smith's Econ cartoon post. Is this one you linked to? I'll check on your site. Anyway, here:
https://www.unz.com/pbuchanan/did-tariffs-make-america-great/
"Did Tariffs Make America Great?" July 22nd of '18
Here is my one comment on there that's not just a thanks or disagree with someone:
***********************************
That was a great concise history of tariffs in our nation’s history. I should have more about this before, but I did know that America’s almost sole source of revenue for a lot of HER history has been the tariffs. This was before the abomination of Amendment XVI was passed, allowing the Feral Government to tax individuals for basically whatever the hell it wants. We ran pretty well on that much smaller amount – it prohibited the rise of the great infernal beast we have now for more than a century.
I’m nothing if not Libertarian, but Libertarians, if they have any brains, should be Constitutionalists. It’s not like liberty that the US has known in the past gets allowed all over the world. This column has pushed me a bit more, but, yeah, if it’s between some trans-national deluded Libertarians, and the Founders of our country, this is a no brainer – I’m going with the latter, Pat..
One more thing – you don’t see that much humor thrown into Mr. Buchanan’s articles, at least not that I can recall. I liked this one:
However, as the blazing issue of that day was Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton, it was no easy task to steer interviewers around to the McKinley Tariff.
Heh!
***********************************
ctrl-f "Hail" yields nada.
Moderator
Thursday - April 10th 2025 6:44AM MST
PS: I haven't read it yet, Mr. Smith, but I thank you for trying to figure out what this Gemini is up to.
Hail
Wednesday - April 9th 2025 10:18PM MST
PS
Note on PS being "down" (as mentioned in the comments at my site; and at the Sailer Unz discussion-section, which is now getting cluttered with petty disputes, most involving Greta Handel) --- My ISP, as far as I can tell, banned access to Peak Stupidity for most of 48 hours.
Suddenly it allows access again. Was able to access through alternate wifi yesterday via same device, which leads me to conclude it was the ISP. This is the first time that's happened to me for PS.
Note on PS being "down" (as mentioned in the comments at my site; and at the Sailer Unz discussion-section, which is now getting cluttered with petty disputes, most involving Greta Handel) --- My ISP, as far as I can tell, banned access to Peak Stupidity for most of 48 hours.
Suddenly it allows access again. Was able to access through alternate wifi yesterday via same device, which leads me to conclude it was the ISP. This is the first time that's happened to me for PS.
Hail
Wednesday - April 9th 2025 10:17PM MST
PS
Thanks for posting and continuing the discussion/attention to the valuable Alfred Eckes work of 1995.
He is far from the only one who has refuted the Smoot-Hawley myth(ology), but his may be among the widest in scope and most accessible...
Thanks for posting and continuing the discussion/attention to the valuable Alfred Eckes work of 1995.
He is far from the only one who has refuted the Smoot-Hawley myth(ology), but his may be among the widest in scope and most accessible...
Adam Smith
Wednesday - April 9th 2025 9:00PM MST
PS: Hello, Achmed.
Some of it is interesting, but it's a little repetitive so it's a bit long. (Google's Gemini is surprisingly long winded with minimal prompting.) If you like you can skip ahead to peakstupidity* or hailtoyou* or Mr. Smith or Ganderson. (For some reason the google bot mistook you for Mr. Ganderson at one point.) (It also mistakenly attributed some of Jonathan Engler's writing as my own.) We also discussed civic mythology and foundational civic mythology in this weird little experiment. At times it gives some pretty interesting commentary.
* Gemini pretends like it cannot read your websites, but when prompted with stuff from the website it knows where it came from. I suspect some sort of shadowban kind of thing (or something) going on here.
(So yeah.) Happy Wednesday! ☮️
Some of it is interesting, but it's a little repetitive so it's a bit long. (Google's Gemini is surprisingly long winded with minimal prompting.) If you like you can skip ahead to peakstupidity* or hailtoyou* or Mr. Smith or Ganderson. (For some reason the google bot mistook you for Mr. Ganderson at one point.) (It also mistakenly attributed some of Jonathan Engler's writing as my own.) We also discussed civic mythology and foundational civic mythology in this weird little experiment. At times it gives some pretty interesting commentary.
* Gemini pretends like it cannot read your websites, but when prompted with stuff from the website it knows where it came from. I suspect some sort of shadowban kind of thing (or something) going on here.
(So yeah.) Happy Wednesday! ☮️
Moderator
Wednesday - April 9th 2025 8:08PM MST
PS: Another test. Hello, Adam. I'll check out the link.
Adam Smith
Wednesday - April 9th 2025 1:48PM MST
PS: Good afternoon, gentlemen,
Totally off topic, but...
A discussion with google gemini about the social and political implications of the communist takeover of America, the exclusion of high IQ individuals from elite professions, the competence crisis, bullshit jobs, unsustainable levels of government debt as slavery, the high rate of chronic illness in children as a symptom of the communist takeover of America, manufactured crises mass delusion and hysteria, the panicfest and assorted other stuff when viewed through our Milgram,Asch,Zimbardo,Doublespeak lens all while considering the fact that statism is a popular and dangerous religious-like delusion and 54% of American adults read below a sixth grade level. (Or something like that.)
https://gemini.google.com/share/cfc11855a4e1
Cheers! ☮️
Totally off topic, but...
A discussion with google gemini about the social and political implications of the communist takeover of America, the exclusion of high IQ individuals from elite professions, the competence crisis, bullshit jobs, unsustainable levels of government debt as slavery, the high rate of chronic illness in children as a symptom of the communist takeover of America, manufactured crises mass delusion and hysteria, the panicfest and assorted other stuff when viewed through our Milgram,Asch,Zimbardo,Doublespeak lens all while considering the fact that statism is a popular and dangerous religious-like delusion and 54% of American adults read below a sixth grade level. (Or something like that.)
https://gemini.google.com/share/cfc11855a4e1
Cheers! ☮️
Moderator
Wednesday - April 9th 2025 6:10AM MST
PS: I remember that show, Alarmist, but I don't think I ever watched it.
The Alarmist
Wednesday - April 9th 2025 4:46AM MST
PS
Mr. Stein’s best work was as the smug host of “Win Ben Stein’s Money.”
🕉️
Mr. Stein’s best work was as the smug host of “Win Ben Stein’s Money.”
🕉️
Moderator
Wednesday - April 9th 2025 1:59AM MST
PS: Testing on behalf of Mr. Hail.
Thanks for the candid camera video. Luved it!
https://files.catbox.moe/di0bq8.webm
Not sure if you can call it a "conversation" any more than you can use the word "thinks" but it did return some interesting... something. I think it (as a program) does have some ability to synthesize data. But it is glitchy and sometimes you have to correct it when it is wrong. Sometimes multiple times before it gets it.
But it is wordy and does sound somewhat intelligent.
What a time to be alive...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKxsXDXds-E
I like these new (to me) Alex Lifeson songs...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL9wVZEkQts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tkygBAs_Z0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-auAxRx99gA
My snow/snap peas are doing very well, but none of my lettuce has come up. Maybe I let it dry out after it started to germinate or maybe the soil just hasn't been warm enough.(?) I'll give it a few more days before I replant. Also, time to start some tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and stuff like that for transplanting in about 4-6 weeks. Guess I'll do that tomorrow.
I hope you have a great evening and weekend, Achmed! ☮️