The U.S. Economy Hits Bottom,...

1930-32
I was refreshing my knowledge of the Great Depression. I think it's important to pay attention to the simularities of what happened than, and what's going on now. Like Product Over production, people starting to lose their homes, and though it hasn't happened yet, the run on people taking their money out of the banking system. And the damage to the world markets when the US stop buying foreign goods.

Not saying we are heading to a Depression, just saying the stage is set.
And if we don't pay attention to History, we are doomed to repeat it.

The artical is pretty extensive, it discusses the entire journey to WWII.
http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch15wd.html

The Great Depression
The U.S. Economy Hits Bottom, 1930-32

Between January and April in the year 1930, the value of stocks rose 13 percent. Then at the end of April the price of stocks began to decline again. The economy was declining, and President Herbert Hoover opposed the view among bankers that the economy should be allowed to deflate. Hoover urged action. He approved a program in which the federal government had a few buildings built, and he urged state and local governments to accelerate their spending. From railroad and utility companies he acquired promises of investments. He called conferences of industrial and labor leaders and obtained from them pledges to maintain employment and production levels and to avoid strikes. But the economy continued to slide. Businesses felt compelled to respond to markets - including the labor market - and they cut production and wages. Some financiers saw reduced wages as a blessing that would improve discipline and character, while others called for more government spending.

People of wealth were pulling their money out of the economy. Unemployment was rising, and consumers had less money to spend, adding to the downward spiral. Bankruptcies were more numerous. Bank loans were not being re-paid. There was no federally guaranteed depositors insurance to inspire depositor confidence. In 1929 there had been 659 bank failures. That number in 1930 rose to 1,352. In November 1930 a run on banks started in Nashville, Tennessee, and swept through the South.

In the congressional elections of November 1930, the Republican majority in the House of Representatives was reduced to six, and their majority in the Senate was reduced to one. At the end of the year, calls for more government action increased. Congress passed a law allocating a mere 116 million dollars for public works and 45 million for drought relief. Fundamentally the government was aiming at a balanced budget, while Hoover spoke of the public works project as a "new experiment in our economic life" and an "advance in economic thought and a service to our people."

By the end of 1930 the value of stocks was down forty percent from its April, 1930, high. On New Years' day, 1931, predictions were made that the depression would be over by the end of the year. Instead, through the year, stock prices in the U.S. continued to decline. In June 1931, Hoover addressed the growing problem of international debt, and he electrified the world by proposing a one-year moratorium on all payments on reparations and other intergovernmental debts. He rejected calls from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Civic Federation for restoring economic order through compulsory, private cartels. And he opposed a bill that would allow veterans to borrow against a pension fund, Hoover calling the bill a "breach of fundamental principle."