How Quickly Americans Forget the Greatest Economy in Modern History: Bill Clinton and NAFTA
Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart On June 17, 1930, President Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. Approved by both houses of Congress, the bill’s intent was to lessen the harm caused by the Great Depression of 1929. Although America’s leading economists opposed the bill, an incompetent group of politicians ignored their warnings and sent it to President Hoover for his signature. Needless to say, it was a disaster. Not a single reputable economist has ever sanctioned the establishment of tariffs on imports as a constructive effort to grow the economy. What works are free trade agreements between various nations. [In his final weeks in office, Republican President George H. W. Bush signed the agreement on December 17, 1992. The House and Senate approved NAFTA less than a year later in a bipartisan fashion with Democrat President Bill Clinton signing the Implementation Act in December 1993.] Prior to Trump, a phrase likely to be used by historians when referring to the failures of th...