Lessons from the Great Depression and One of The Biggest Tax Hikes in History of the U.S.
CARPE DIEM — The chart above shows the highest marginal individual income tax rates from 1925 to 1945, using data from the IRS. The highest income tax rate was increased from 25% in the early 1930s, to 63% in 1932, and then to 79% in 1936. If you want to turn a recession into a depression with perverse fiscal policy, there's probably no better, more effective way to accomplish that outcome than by more than tripling marginal tax rates from 25% to 79% in the face of an economic slowdown. Talk about an "economic ...

Understanding Fiscal Policy During the Great Depression
Marginal Revolution — ... The Revenue Act of 1932 was followed by many further tax increases (e.g. Brown notes "...social security taxes began in 1937 to exert a pronounced effect...") many of them, under pressure from the Huey Long wing, designed to "Share our Wealth." Here is a graph of the highest marginal income tax rate which went from 25% to 79% between 1929 and 1940 and here is a graph of the ...