Jackson Jambalaya

The Cato Institute's Alan Reynolds recently wrote the Great Depression was caused not by Hoover's inaction, but rather by his actions as he took a stock market crash and turned it into a catastrophe. Mr. Reynolds opined:
"Far from "doing nothing," Herbert Hoover initiated a violent implosion of world trade and prices by signing the infamous Smoot-Hawley tariff on June 17, 1930 (Hiked tarriffs to 60%) The Commercial and Financial Chronicle then observed "a renewed violent collapse of the stock market." Benjamin Anderson, the chief economist for Citibank at the time, called the draconian tariffs Hoover's "crowning financial folly" and explained why:
"In a world staggering under a load of international debt, which could be carried only if countries under pressure could produce goods and export them to their creditors, we, the great creditor nation of the world, with tariffs already too high, raised our tariffs again ... Protectionism ran wild over the world. Markets were cut off. Trade lines were narrowed. Unemployment in the export industries all over the world grew with great rapidity, and the prices of export commodities ... dropped with ominous rapidity."....
In short, Hoover's rush to "do something" soon proved extremely dangerous to the U.S. and world economy. Hoover's trade policy seems like an extreme version of what Barack Obama proposes to do if elected. The same is true of Obama's Hooveresque vision of raising corporate taxes by 25% (in the guise of closing loopholes and tax havens), and of trying to raise income, payroll and investment tax rates for those who already bear most of the federal tax burden....
At the end of 1931, President Herbert Hoover asked for a temporary tax increase, saying it was "indispensable to the restoration of confidence." Congress went along in June 1932, raising the top income tax rate from 25% to 63% and quadrupling the lowest tax rate from 1.1% to 4%. That didn't help confidence or the Treasury. Revenue from the individual income tax dropped from $834 million in 1931 to $427 million in 1932 and $353 million in 1933.
It was Hoover, not FDR, who pushed for the biggest increase in marginal tax rates before or since. And it was Hoover, not FDR, who created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to make lavish loans to banks and businesses--just as the Bush administration is doing today. .."
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9671

Last week in the debate, he said he would make trade agreements dependent on labor and environment conditions. This will merely cause countries to avoid signing trade agreements with us as they will rightly perceive we are telling them how to run their country. He wants to raise taxes in an economy that is probably going into a recession. He claims only the rich will suffer, ignoring the fact the superrich that everyone loves to bash usually have their money protected in low-tax trusts and foundations. Think Obama will attack those loopholes? The ones used by Soros, the Kennedy's, and his other super-rich Democrat friends? His target is the working and investing rich, the ones who are productive with their money and make the economy run (by the way, is there anyone you personally know making over $100,000 a year who DOESN'T work hard?). However, like Hoover, Obama wants to hike taxes during a time of economic crisis, which will merely make things worse. He also resists any calls for across the board spending cuts, in a two TRILLION dollar budget. Since he is advocating making Hoover's mistakes, one must ask if Obama is another Hoover.