To the contrary, globalization increases the responsibilities of the United States and other major powers. The precedent, as well as the pattern, already exists for a Geneva Accord on international worker rights, if only leading governments would exercise their responsibilities. Mr. President, the ball is in your court. The next time you hear somebody say that the Smoot-Hawley tariffs of 1930 caused or worsened the Great Depression, tell them that they are repeating a myth. Smoot-Hawley has long been a favorite whipping boy of the dominant school of economists.
Recent research shows that they are propagating a falsehood.
His book lays out the detailed evidence that demolishes the Smoot-Hawley legend. The fury of the global depression, not the irritation of American tariff changes, forced foreign governments to restrict trade and currency flows, and to concentrate on domestic economic recovery. But, as both scholars point out, the simplistic myth lives on, not only in textbooks and in political rhetoric, but in U.S. trade policy. It is one rhetorical weapon deployed to block serious discussion of international worker rights.