Originally Posted by
trips
Has to be Herbert Hoover, signs of a depression were there and he never did anything,IMO no depression maybe Hitler would never had gained power in Germany .no WW2,
...from the Guardian...
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It was the Smoot Hartley Act penalising imports into America which set off a worldwide round of tariff increases in 1931, making a dire economic situation even worse and creating the conditions for the Depression.
The signs were there - a bit of the wiki article...
In May 1930, a petition was signed by 1028 economists in the United States asking President Herbert Hoover to veto the legislation, organized by Paul Douglas, Irving Fisher, James TFG Wood, Frank Graham, Ernest Patterson, Henry Seager, Frank Taussig, and Clair Wilcox. Automobile executive Henry Ford spent an evening at the White House trying to convince Hoover to veto the bill, calling it "an economic stupidity". J. P. Morgan's chief executive Thomas W. Lamont said he "almost went down on my knees to beg Herbert Hoover to veto the asinine Hawley-Smoot tariff."
Hoover opposed the bill and called it "vicious, extortionate, and obnoxious" because he felt it would undermine the commitment he had pledged to international cooperation. Later events would reveal Hoover was right: the international community levied their own tariffs in retaliation after the bill had become law. However, in spite of his opposition, Hoover yielded to influence from his own party and business leaders and signed the bill.
With some parallels to the present administration...
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