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The Great Depression was worse in the US than in Europe

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The Great Depression was worse in the US than in Europe

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29 segments

0:00

the question of why the Great Depression

0:01

was so much worse in the United States

0:03

than

0:04

than um it was in Europe at the time was

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that the handover from Hoover after the

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election to FDR took such a long time.

0:14

It used to you know it takes 6 months it

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took 6 months then.

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>> I don't think people realize that that

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back back back then you had the election

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in November but the president of the

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United States didn't take power till

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April.

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>> I know it was extraordinary so you had a

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a while where you were effectively in

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the middle of one of the world's

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great economic calamity so you

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essentially have no government. So

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things were much worse for that strange

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technical reason. I find it I don't

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think many historians have commented on

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that but you basically had

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Hoover had no power and and FDR who

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was was was not yet in power and was

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trying to put together a government and

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set up policies but nobody who was

0:49

guiding things and I think that did push

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things

0:52

things worse than they were.

Interactive Summary

The video discusses a historical administrative detail that exacerbated the Great Depression in the United States: the lengthy transition period between the presidential election and the inauguration, which left the country effectively without leadership during an economic crisis.

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