"Tariffs are neither a panacea nor necessarily injurious. Their
effectiveness, like that of any economic policy intervention, depends on
the circum-stances under which they are implemented. Smoot-Hawley was a
failure at its time, but its failure tells analysts very little about
the effect that tariffs would have on the United States today. That is
because now, unlike then, the United States is not producing far more
than it can consume. Ironically, the history of Smoot-Hawley says a lot
more about how tariffs today would affect a country such as China, whose
excess production resembles more closely the United States of the 1920s
than does the United States of now."
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/how-tariffs-can-help-america
May be the author has simplified the situation too much. The relative
effect of tariffs would depend on a nation’s overall economic growth
outlook before the tariffs are becoming widespread.
In reality, “the U.S. economy was actually revving up during the 1930s,
and setting up a post-Depression era of dizzying growth.
Underneath the misery of the Great Depression, the United States economy
was quietly making enormous strides during the 1930s. Television and
nylon stockings were invented. Refrigerators and washing machines turned
into mass-market products. Railroads became faster and roads smoother
and wider....”
https://theweek.com/articles/481125/why-better-great-depression
Question:
Which nation, China or the US, is more productive and grows at faster
rate at present?
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