Herbert Hoover

1. Herbert Hoover • Rugged Individualism- laissez faire doctrine • Opposed federal welfare and handouts • Trickle-Down Economics

2. Hoover’s Plan • Proposed a Tariff bill which Senator Smoot presented called the Smoot-Hawley Tariff • Promised increased tariffs on imports • Planned to allow more productivity for US manufacturers • Help ease unemployment

3. Investors marvel at This Proposal • Investors believed profits from stocks would increase if the tariff bill was passed • Sparked intense speculation • Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by almost 35% because expected election of Hoover and his bill

4. Hoover’s Plan to combat Crash • Extracted promises from manufacturers to maintain production. • Signed legislation providing generous additional funds to pubic works • Smoot-Hawley Tariff 1930 (finally passed): to raise duties 50%

5. Hoover’s last Attempts • Hoover proposes one year moratorium on war debt payments • Too little too late • Financial panic: European Government goes off their gold standard and devalues currencies, destroying exchange system (hurts trade) • Europe withdraws gold from US banks