I think you may have missed the most important difference. Both President Hoover and the Federal Reserve reacted by tightening monetary and fiscal policy. Their intentions were good, Hoover wanted a balanced budget and the Fed was attempting to defend the US Dollar peg to gold.
The unfortunate and unintended consequence was that the policies sucked all the oxygen out of the room and extinguished the flame of the economy.
This time, building on what Chairman Bernanke started, we are doing the opposite. He advocated for QE, and loose monetary policy.
My personal opinion is that this will not end well, but may take up to a decade to come to it’s natural conclusion.
While my understanding of economics and QE is basic. Printing money won’t make up for lost opportunity and produce which will come out of this. Does “unlimited QE really work ?”
In my view governments are way too focused on the economy as it is / was rather than innovative solutions and investment into transitioning into something new and more resilient.
You’ll often here Trump saying “reopen the economy”. “The economy” he knew is gone. It’s changed forever, time to evolve.
I’m going to say that what contributed to getting us out of the Great Depression was (amongst other things) was that humans better adapted to that environment.
QE "works" because it keeps wealthy investors wealthy, and they're the ones funding campaigns and hiring people like Bernanke after they retire from government.
It works for the people making the decisions, and the people funding them, so you bet it's going to continue happening even if it means the American standard of living will continue to drop.
The unfortunate and unintended consequence was that the policies sucked all the oxygen out of the room and extinguished the flame of the economy.
This time, building on what Chairman Bernanke started, we are doing the opposite. He advocated for QE, and loose monetary policy.
My personal opinion is that this will not end well, but may take up to a decade to come to it’s natural conclusion.