John Moser

We should pump all this federal money into public works projects.

It's astounded in some ways, like, like at least part of the new deal.

And then before any of this could get going, the economy improved.

But he kind of put that idea aside and said, well, you know, eventually there may be another opportunity to do it.

And in fact, there was a huge jump in public works early on in the depression.

Hoover spent more money in peacetime.

than any previous president, not just in nominal terms, but in real terms.

He put a lot of federal, he oversaw a vast increase in federal spending.

And a lot of this was for Public Works Project to soak up unemployment.

Nothing less than Hoover Dam, which is why it's named for him, right?

Yeah, although in the short term, it was not named Hoover.

When it first opened, it was called Boulder Dam.

And then later on, they said, well, you know, Hoover deserves some credit.

Hoover was so unpopular in the 1930s that, yeah, they didn't want to name the dam after him, even though he was responsible for its construction.

Yeah, so they proposed a relief bill in 31, I want to say it was late in 31, that would have spent far more money than Hoover was comfortable with.

And the money was to come through the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which Hoover himself had created.

This was actually, would end up being one of the most important agencies of the New Deal, but it was in fact a Hoover creation.

Hoover envisioned the RFC as,

as a vehicle for bailing out the most important economic institutions in the country.

Banks, railroads, insurance companies, etc.