Herbert Hoover was elected president in 1928 on a platform of prosperity, but the stock market crashed in 1929, plunging the US into the Great Depression. Overproduction, declining exports, income inequality, and mistakes by the Federal Reserve exacerbated the economic downturn. By 1933, unemployment had reached 25% as banks failed, businesses closed, and millions lost their homes and farms. Shantytowns appeared as people struggled to survive with breadlines and soup kitchens. Dust storms destroyed the livelihoods of farmers on the Great Plains, forcing many to migrate to California in search of work. President Hoover did not use the federal government to help citizens, damaging his reputation.