The End of the "Blue Skies"

There was no a single cause of the Great Depression, but rather a combination of many. It all started with the low interest rates that made excessive borrowing very easy in the 1920's. Then the stock market crashed, which in turn led to banks failing because their loans were unable to be paid. This completely wiped out millions of depositors' savings. During this time, the wealth gap widened and lead to problems such as overproduction and then underconsumption. Both of these led to more goods being produced than consumed. This caused a huge problem, resulting in less production and mass layoffs. Perhaps the worst action that the government made was imposing high tariffs on foreign sales in hopes of "protecting American businesses." The opposite effect occurred as the European countries raised their tariffs on goods imported from the US, leading to a decline in the world economy as well, spreading the woes across the globe. What could the government have done to lessen the damage?