footing by punishing wild speculation. While most historians are critical of Hoover's response to the Depression, it is important to recognize that most also believe the crash had little to do with the advent of the Depression. One response that could have happened—but didn't until Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal—was legislation that regulated the kind of speculation that led to the crash. The Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) was created in 1934 amid legislation that also restricted margin trading and other abuses that contributed to the crash. But in the short term, there was very little immediate government response.

As Mkoren has already pointed out, with this question you would need to differentiate between the Hoover and Roosevelt administrations. Hoover was much more conservative economically, and tended to side with the Free Market, so after the Great Depression struck, it is doubtful he would have ever supported the kind of ambitious federal expansion represented by the New Deal. However, as the Great Depression set in, he did try to take steps to address it, opening up building projects such as the Hoover Dam, as well as the federal initiatives previously addressed. Even so, he never supported the kind of large scale deficit spending Roosevelt and his allies were calling for.

By contrast, FDR's New Deal was much more aggressive and much more expansive response to the problem. In addition to the programs aimed at fighting the Depression (which were earlier discussed), the New Deal also sought to reform the US economy, so that the events which caused the Great Depression would not repeat. The SEC was created in 1934 to prosecute insider trading and regulate the stock market. In addition there was the FDIC, through which the federal government would guarantee any bank deposit up to a maximum limit. This was in answer to the Bank Panic.

When the stock market crashed, our economy went into a depression. At first, the government did very little.  President Hoover believed in a laissez-faire philosophy.  This meant Hoover believed the government should interfere as little as possible in the economy.  For two years, Hoover took little action.  However, in his last year in office, Hoover tried to bring the economy out of the depression. The National Credit Corporation was established to help troubled banks make loans.  The Reconstruction Finance Corporation was created to provide loans to businesses.  The Emergency Relief and Construction Act provided direct relief to people. However, people felt President Hoover didn’t do enough, and he lost the election in 1932 to Franklin D. Roosevelt.

When President Roosevelt took office, he launched many programs to try to help bring the economy out of the depression.  There were new rules for the stock market, and many government programs created jobs. Banks were closed for four days, and only the strongest ones financially were allowed to reopen. Over 15 major programs were passed in Roosevelt’s first 100 days in office.  These actions were part of the New Deal program.

Thus, after a very slow response, the government eventually took action in trying to respond to the crash of the stock market.