Cisco moves even more to china.

Sat Sep 25 20:27:43 UTC 2004

At 02:23 PM 9/25/2004, you wrote:
engagement is fair trade.  Lessaiz Faire economics was tried about 100 
years ago.  It resulted in the Great Depression and children dying of 
tuberculosis in the factories.  Why does anyone think it'll work today?

Curtis,

I tried to stay out of this since it isn't really on topic at all, but your 
statement above is so completely wrong that I can't let it pass without 
correcting it.

Actually, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff which was intended to be "fair trade" in 
your parlance CAUSED the Great Depression, NOT free trade. Some economists 
particularly those of the Keynesian school wrongly (imho) see the S-H 
Tariff as a result of the Great Depression rather than a cause. However, 
all parties agree that it did nothing but prolong the depression. Properly 
analyzing the facts and knowing the time which is involved in passing 
legislation and Hoover's promises to enact the tariff if he was elected 
caused the capital markets to dry up when it became evident that he would 
win and that the tariff would be enacted. The anticipation of the act was 
enough to scare away the smart money from the market which caused the stock 
market crash of '29. The depression lasted as a result of the tariff 
essentially killing trade between the US and the rest of the world. Those 
who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it!

Here are a few references for you:

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/id/17606.htm

http://www.buyandhold.com/bh/en/education/history/2002/smoot_hawley.html

http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/H/HawleyS1m.asp

-Robert

btw- The good news is that Bush or Kerry will loose. The bad news is that 
the other one of them will win. :(

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