FDR was sworn into office first term in March, 1933; check a graph of the GDP and check out when the economy started climbing again. The confidence level was tremendous. The rich were still hoarding their wealth and hiding out behind private armies on their estates, having done absolutely nothing to build the economy back up under Hoover, unless you count gambling on short selling stocks and sniveling about taxes.
In the U.S. presidential election of 1928, Hoover ran as the Republican Party’s nominee. Promising to bring continued peace and prosperity to the nation, he carried 40 states and defeated Democratic candidate Alfred E. Smith (1873-1944), the governor of
New York, by a record margin of 444-87 electoral votes. “I have no fears for the future of our country,” Hoover declared in his inaugural address. “It is bright with hope.”
On October 24, 1929–only seven months after Hoover took office–a precipitous drop in the value of the U.S. stock market sent the economy spiraling downward and signaled the start of the Great Depression. Banks and businesses failed across the country. Nationwide unemployment rates rose from 3 percent in 1929 to 23 percent in 1932. Millions of Americans lost their jobs, homes and savings. Many people were forced to wait in bread lines for food and to live in squalid shantytowns known derisively as
Hoovervilles.
Herbert Hoover - U.S. Presidents - HISTORY.com