The bailout bill is loaded with ‘Buy American’ requirements. Isn’t that reminiscent of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff that pushed the already-weakened economy in the 1930s into a global depression? The problem with protectionism is that it causes other countries to raise barriers of their own, cutting off American businesses from the markets that could bring them back to life. Also, it won’t help us to ruin other country’s export economies, since we depend so heavily on their investments here.