The Hoover administration's initial response to the Great Depression focused on maintaining a laissez-faire economic policy and promoting voluntary cooperation among businesses. One example of this is the creation of the National Credit Corporation in 1931, which aimed to stabilize the banking system by allowing struggling banks to provide collateral to healthy banks in exchange for emergency loans. Another example is the passage of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff in 1930, which raised tariffs on imported goods in an effort to protect American industries from foreign competition but ultimately worsened the global economic downturn.
