Herbert Hoover was the U.S. president when the Wall Street Crash of 1929 began and intensified.
Hoover took office in March 1929, several months before the stock-market collapse. The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a major peak in September 1929, then fell sharply through October. The crash contributed to the economic contraction that became the Great Depression, although historians distinguish the market collapse from the broader depression that followed.
Hoover is sometimes described as having caused the crash, but that is an oversimplification. Speculation, buying stocks on margin, weakening industrial production, banking problems, and international financial pressures all played roles. Hoover’s administration responded with measures including public-works spending and tax changes, but the downturn continued. Franklin D. Roosevelt succeeded him in March 1933, after the banking crisis and stock-market losses had already devastated the economy.