DBWI: 1929 Stock Market Crash Causes Economic Depression?

While cleaning out my bookshelf, I stumbled upon an old textbook from a college economics course. There was a chapter devoted to the stock market crash of October 1929, at that time the biggest in history. When President Hoover learned that many depositors could not withdraw their money from the banks, he ordered a bank holiday and promised to support the market. He also asked Congress to pass an emergency bill to bail out the five largest banks in the country. His actions prevented what would have been a great economic depression.

But what if Hoover did not do anything? What would the United States be like if such a depression hit? Would we have experienced hyper inflation like in Weimar era Germany, millions of people becoming homeless and living in makeshift shacks and near 30 percent unemployment like in the UK? And if Hoover was defeated for reelection in 1932, what steps would his successor have taken and would he have turned the USA into a dictatorship?

It is scary to think what would have happened. Such a depression would have been dystopic.
 
Downside to a depression, a probable unemployment rate of 20 percent as every market sector takes a massive hit.

Upside, major reforms down the road as people realize that rich or poor, oftentimes "There but for the grace of god,..."

I guaruntee you we would have a much less boursois middleclass that would be much more aware of how fragile their status could be.

We certainly would not be treating poverty in and of itself as if it were a crime.
 
While cleaning out my bookshelf, I stumbled upon an old textbook from a college economics course. There was a chapter devoted to the stock market crash of October 1929, at that time the biggest in history. When President Hoover learned that many depositors could not withdraw their money from the banks, he ordered a bank holiday and promised to support the market. He also asked Congress to pass an emergency bill to bail out the five largest banks in the country. His actions prevented what would have been a great economic depression.

But what if Hoover did not do anything? What would the United States be like if such a depression hit? Would we have experienced hyper inflation like in Weimar era Germany, millions of people becoming homeless and living in makeshift shacks and near 30 percent unemployment like in the UK? And if Hoover was defeated for reelection in 1932, what steps would his successor have taken and would he have turned the USA into a dictatorship?

It is scary to think what would have happened. Such a depression would have been dystopic.

It sadly didn't stop the recession that still occurred in late 1930. I do wonder, though, if it could have been worse than the Depression of '77(gee, thanks George Wallace. Guy was the worst Republican president ever). Took us nearly a decade to fully recover from that.

@S.H.: Things are getting better, though......even if gradually.
 
It sadly didn't stop the recession that still occurred in late 1930. I do wonder, though, if it could have been worse than the Depression of '77(gee, thanks George Wallace. Guy was the worst Republican president ever). Took us nearly a decade to fully recover from that.

@S.H.: Things are getting better, though......even if gradually.
Yes, the 70's and 80's were bad years, I was a little girl in those times, and I remember long years of home made presents on Christmas and BIrthdays and getting told that it was our fault because dad didn't have a "Real Job"

(Dad was career Air FOrce.)
 
Yes, the 70's and 80's were bad years, I was a little girl in those times, and I remember long years of home made presents on Christmas and BIrthdays and getting told that it was our fault because dad didn't have a "Real Job"

(Dad was career Air FOrce.)

Should've seen the UK in those dark times. Unemployment of 28% by '79. Inflation of 112% RPI-X. GDP hitting a trough of 70.4% from pre-crash peak. EEC was what it took to save the UK, and we've been party to that system ever since.

Still, things did get better. Eventually. At least I got my first job by 19 - still a rare-ish occurrence these days.

Back to the OP though. Having a depression back in '30 might have led to some serious safeguards against future shocks, or even stifled said shocks. Economic ain't my strong suit though, can't say what the full effects would've been.
 
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