An ordinary recession starting in late spring 1929 became the Great Depression in winter 1933 owing to the collapse of the banking system, an unintended consequences of the well-intentioned Reconstruction Finance Corporation. This Federal corporation had ample resources it could lend to distressed banks, even those outside the Federal Reserve System. After the Democratic victory in November 1932. Garner, Vice-President-elect and still Speaker of the House in January 1933, set in motion events that turned the RFC into the unwitting spring of economic disaster. During the New Deal the RFC’s preferred stock program gave it substantial control over private banks making them unduly conservative and hindering economic recovery. JEL E65 Studies of Particular Policy Episodes.