Nope. Cheap money. Credit was rampant.
Your opinion of interest rates had an effect that youll get no arguement from me but, credit was offered all over the place, especially in agriculture. If you think any lesd, then you need to look at how many farms were reposessed during the depression. Then, the banks failed and entire busineeses were destroyed.
The ratio of non secured debt is so high now we will be lucky to survive this in tact.
Money was cheap then, it is still cheap now.
I don’t disagree that there was a credit expansion that was going to cause an economic contraction. But the credit expansion in the 20s was similar in size or smaller than during the 80s (S&L era), 2000s (housing boom). What turned a likely recession into The Depression was the Feds overly restrictive monetary policies.