Betcha thought it had something to do with excess margin available at your broker coupled with the absence of deposit insurance at your bank.
Nope.
Don't believe me? It's true--I heard it on Fox!
Commerce Secretary Evans spun madly on Fox when a Foxur(i)nalist hit him with what was a pretty damn good question regarding outsourcing.
And he was doing great spin, really good...insourcing...new word...but then, he said that "protectionism caused the Great Depression."
He didn't say, "what if we'd had more export markets in 1930, or a Marshall Plan to save the Weimar Republic?"
He also didn't talk about hot money or colds, flus, or sneezes that markets can give each other today.
He didn't say peep about FDIC or margin limits or such. Nor whispered anything about debt deflation.
I practically spit out my diet Coke at the pizza joint where I was watching.
UPDATE
OK. Evans may get a pass if he meant to say "exacerbate" instead of "cause..."
a word about Smoot-Hawley
But he did not say "exacerbate."