[central_va]

But in the 1929 period, you can go through the decade prior and find literally a dozen warning signs. Land speculation, banks taking consumer deposits and speculating on stock, etc. The fed could have stepped in and resolved the 1929 crash and lessen the effect, but failed miserably. FDR came on three years later and simply doubled the effect of the crash.

You are wrong here. The Free Republic Army of Free Traitors™ has informed me on may occasions that the real cause of the Great Depression was the passage of the Smoot-Hawley Act in 1930 and it's implementation in 1931. Get with the gloBULList propaganda. /SARCASM

[pepsionice]

The Hawley Act simply made damage done in 1929 stagnant and done little to nothing to improve the situation.

A great book for the 1920 which goes into the land speculation and continued ups and downs of the period is ‘The Forgotten Men’ by Amity Shlaes. Very readable and it talks to the general public lack of understanding on the market effect. A fair part of the book goes over Florida and California property speculation (almost identical to 2008 in some ways).

There’s no doubt that the Fed could have done something and choose to make almost no action. Part of this (Shlaes book talks to this) were continual warnings that they gave Congress, the President, the banks, and the public. You get the impression that they wanted the public to suffer and remember this era. The Hawley Act had one big effect...taxes on imported goods (almost 20,000 items). All this did was convince business partners (other countries) to also crank up a taxation product on American goods. Thanks to idiots in the Senate....we simply made any hope in 1931 a lost cause. Then came the FDR crew, who worked hard to make sure the depression lasted a full decade.