President Warren G. Harding faced an annual unemployment rate of 11.7 percent in 1921, he did absolutely nothing, except for cutting government spending the following year went down to 6.7 percent, in the year after that, 2.4 percent.
There is a fairly recent study by two economists out of Berkley, I believe. It says he may have prolonged it by 7 years with his anti-capitalist policies. I'll see if I can find a link.
The conclusion was the fed was too conservative in dealing with it. I believe there was a quote from the fed chair of the time that they weren't going to step in until a "real" crisis happened.
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