He kept spending time and money on the prohibition program which lost a lot of money (due to lack of enforcement officers and bribes along with plain old human nature ). And if they went back to taxing liquor the government would make more money than in the 1920’s and before the Prohibition because drinking was rising. Also it would have created more jobs. And with that money he could have given the retirement money to the WW1 spillers and avoid the tragedy of them protesting asking for money then Hoover ordering the Army to shoot. He also didn’t want to create fixed prices at etc because it was too close to socialism. He failed because he didn’t make radical moves to try to fix the problem, he just wanted to stay in office and stick to his campaign promises