GLOBALIZATION | NEW ECONOMY SHORT CUT

From Smoot-Hawley to Trump?

4/June/2025

02:00 PM CEST

PLACE

Zoom

LANGUAGE

English

A look at history shows that aggressive tariff policies can have devastating consequences. In the 1930s, a number of governments reacted to the US Smoot-Hawley tariffs with drastic countermeasures. Global trade collapsed – and the global economic crisis worsened dramatically.

Does Donald Trump’s aggressive course threaten a similar catastrophe today? What lessons can be learned from history? We explore this in our next New Economy Short Cut From Smoot-Hawley to Trump? What we can learn about trade wars from the 1930s with Kirsten Wandschneider, University of Vienna and Kiel Institute Fellow, and Carl-Ludwig Holtfrerich, historian, on June 04, 2025 at 14:00 CEST via Zoom.

Kirsten Wandschneider

is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Vienna, where she teaches courses on economic history, macroeconomics, and international economics. Her research interests focus on the history and development of financial institutions and international trade relations.

Carl-Ludwig Holtfrerich

is an economic historian and professor emeritus at the Free University of Berlin. He is one of the leading experts on German and international monetary and financial history of the 19th and 20th centuries.