John Moser

But then something else would happen, a round of bank crises.

And it contributes to this overall mood of gloom that causes people who have large amounts of money not to want to invest to

And those with some money not to want to spend it on durable consumer goods.

And there was nothing unique about it to the Great Depression except the scale of them.

Bank failures happened, as I think I said earlier.

They happened routinely.

Starting in 1934, they became extremely rare.

And a lot of it had to do with the banking policies put into effect in the early part of the New Deal.

FDIC was, which by the way, FDR opposed, but Congress insisted on it.

FDIC really made bank crisis obsolete.

Banks don't fail anymore.

Well, I think it's right to say he was a failure at addressing the Depression, but it's not for lack of trying.

What's often forgotten is there was a huge difference.

I think there was a bigger difference between Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover than there was between Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt.

Herbert Hoover was a Teddy Roosevelt supporter.

He was from the progressive wing of the Republican Party.

It's also often forgotten, there was a serious recession at the beginning of the 1920s.

1920, 1921.

In fact, in terms of how quickly and how severely it came on, it was initially worse even than the great depression.

It ended very quickly, but Hoover, who at the time was secretary of commerce said, I have a plan.