What the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act Was Really About

This podcast discusses the contents of a book entitled "The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act Revisited" which presents new evidence of the origins of this controversial piece of tariff legislation. In short, its origins lie in the technology shock that was electric unit drive, opening up a gap betwen potential U.S. GDP and actual GDP, one that Senator Smoot and the Republican Party hoped would be closed by futher restricting access to the U.S. market for foreign firms.