Herbert Hoover failed to recognize the depth of the problems that lead to the Great Depression.
Probably.
He clung to the idea that the free markets would correct themselves.
That's a widely held myth. Probably at least partially because earlier in his life he was a strong supporter of laissez-faire, but he dropped that before he became president.
Hoover signed Smoot-Hawley, greatly increased spending, taxes, and government intervention as president. All in all more so than any other president except FDR, who interesting attacked Hoover for such actions before going further in the same direction (with the important exception of trade restrictions) after the election.
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Did Hoover really subscribe to a "hands-off-the-economy," free-market philosophy? His opponent in the 1932 election, Franklin Roosevelt, didn’t think so. During the campaign, Roosevelt blasted Hoover for spending and taxing too much, boosting the national debt, choking off trade, and putting millions on the dole. He accused the president of "reckless and extravagant" spending, of thinking "that we ought to center control of everything in Washington as rapidly as possible," and of presiding over "the greatest spending administration in peacetime in all of history." Roosevelt’s running mate, John Nance Garner, charged that Hoover was "leading the country down the path of socialism."[8]
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