Causes Of The Great Depression

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The Great Depression was triggered by a sudden, total collapse in the stock market. This day, October 29, 1929, came to be known as Black Tuesday. There were many probable causes of this devastating time, such as massive bank failures, and the stock market crash. Others, such as economists, such as Peter Termin and Barry Eichengreen, believe the blame lies on Britain’s decision to return to the Gold Standard. According to many sources, recession cycles are a normal phenomenon. Supply and demand influence this a great deal. There are many theories as to the causes of the Great Depression, but in the end, it all comes down to the simple factor of unequal distribution of wealth throughout the 1020’s. In other words the rich were very rich, and the poor were extremely poor. The middle class was nearly non-existent. This occurs often in the world, but the Great Depression was the worst economic downfall in the history of the U.S. It spread and affected all of the industrialized world. The depression began with Black Tuesday, and lasted for nearly a decade. According to Paul Alexander Gusmorino, the main cause of the drastic downfall was the combination of unequal distribution of wealth and the extensive stock market speculation that took place in the later years of that decade. Speculation is a key term in this area of history. To put it simply, speculation is an involvement in risky business transactions in an attempt to quickly gain large amounts of wealth. The imbalance of wealth led to an unstable economy, while the stock excessive speculation kept the stock marker falsely high, eventually leading to a large crash. Authoritative figures tried to help out the economy in any way they could, but not all ended up helping. For example, the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act, the most protective tariffs in history, ended up worsening the economy. However, some acts during this time
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