In your opinion, which U.S. President was least effective and why? Was their ineffectiveness their fault?

In my opinion, President Hoover was the least effective president, and it was his fault because of his beliefs about the role of government in dealing with economic issues. Shortly after Hoover became President, the United States went into its worst depression ever. This was known as the Great Depression. President Hoover expected that the good times of the 1920s would continue into the 1930s. However, when the stock market crashed and banks failed, the...

In my opinion, President Hoover was the least effective president, and it was his fault because of his beliefs about the role of government in dealing with economic issues. Shortly after Hoover became President, the United States went into its worst depression ever. This was known as the Great Depression. President Hoover expected that the good times of the 1920s would continue into the 1930s. However, when the stock market crashed and banks failed, the prosperity ended as businesses closed and some people lost their life savings.

President Hoover was very ineffective in dealing with the Great Depression. He believed that our economy goes through cycles, and the government needed to do very little to end the depression. He believed in a philosophy called laissez-faire. This philosophy means the government shouldn’t get involved much in the economy. As a result, President Hoover’s inaction helped lead to the depression getting worse. When he finally did act by creating the National Credit Corporation and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, and by signing the Emergency Relief and Construction Act, these programs did little to improve our economy.  Because he waited so long to act, his actions weren’t enough and were very ineffective in helping us deal with the effects of the Great Depression.

President Hoover, who believed he was going to preside over continued prosperity, ended up being viewed very negatively because of his personal views of how the government should respond during times of economic crisis. This philosophy led to his initial inaction and then the development of policies that didn’t work due in part to his initial inaction.