“In 1930, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, in an effort to alleviate the effects of the… anyone? Anyone? Great Depression. Passed the… anyone? Anyone? The tariff bill. The Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act. Which… anyone? …Raised tariffs in an effort to collect more revenue for the federal government. Did it work? Anyone?… It did not work, and the United States sank deeper into the Great Depression.”
–Economics teacher, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Wow. Well, that was something.
After one of the most volatile and dramatic weeks in modern financial history, one thing is evident regardless of your opinions about policy or politics. Whether it’s a feature, a bug, a strategy, or all of the above, chaos and disruption are the status quo in Trump 2.0. This is the new normal.
In the last week, economists and journalists were referencing the Crash of 1987, the Great Recession, and, terrifyingly, the Hawley-Smoot Act! Let’s be honest, most of us associate Hawley-Smoot more with Ben Stein than the Great Depression. On Monday, our team started discussing how to provide our clients with content and context of how they responded to past crises. When markets shake, messaging shifts. As we expected, by Tuesday companies (particularly in industries like automotive and financial services) began referencing their longevity and resilience in messaging.
We’ve seen this before. At moments like these, businesses with experience and credibility shift to a message of endurance. But simply reminding your audiences that you’ve weathered storms in the past is only part of the equation. Don’t just remind; reveal. Draw straight lines from past actions to present principles.
- Don’t just tag your founding year in front of business-as-usual content or trot out a tired “for more than a century we’ve blah, blah, blah.”
- Cite specific inflection points you’ve navigated and how you did it.
- Highlight the values and decisions that guided you then and how they are applicable now.
The real opportunity isn’t just saying you’ve survived, it’s to show how you’ve responded and why it’s relevant now. Fortunately, this particular crisis seems to have stalled (at least for now). But if the last two months have taught us anything, uncertainty isn’t a moment. It’s a mode. In times like these, people aren’t just looking for calm voices. They’re looking for informed ones. That’s where your experience comes in.
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