None of the remedies adopted by the president or the Congress succeeded-not higher tariffs, nor restriction of immigration, nor sticking to sound money, nor expressions of confidence in the resilience of the American people. With so little being bought and sold, and so little lent and spent, with even bankers unable to lay their hands on money, the nation’s economy ground nearly to a halt. Banks that otherwise might have endured the crisis fell prey to panic, and shut down as well. Fear-stricken observers went to their own banks and demanded their deposits. Already over-extended banks, deprived of income, took savings accounts down with them when they closed. Unemployed workers and cash-strapped farmers could not defaulted on their debts, including their mortgages. The needy drew down whatever savings they had, turned to their families, and sought out charities for public assistance. Food rotted in the fields of a starving nation. Farmers could not make enough money from their crops to make harvesting worthwhile. With so many people out of work and without income, shops sold even less, dropped their prices lower still, and then shed still more workers, creating a vicious downward cycle.įour years after the crash, the Great Depression reached its lowest point: nearly one in four Americans who wanted a job could not find one and, of those who could, more than half had to settle for part-time work. Retailers lowered prices and, when that did not attract enough buyers to turn profits, they laid off workers to lower labor costs. Industries built on debt-fueled purchases sold fewer goods. People suddenly stopped borrowing and buying. After nearly a decade of supposed prosperity, the economy crashed to a halt. Hard times had hit the United States before, but never had an economic crisis lasted so long or inflicted as much harm as the slump that followed the 1929 crash. Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the “First” New Deal The Lived Experience of the Great Depression Herbert Hoover and the Politics of the Depression