The Great Depression DBQ Intro: Throughout the 1920’s, America was prospering, but that all ended very quickly. Say’s Law basically said that the government was necessary to make things better; things would get better on their own. Things obviously didn’t. The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression started in 1930 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s.
It did not only affect Americans, but also the whole world. The Great Depression was caused by the crash of the stock market or the lack of real investment opportunities in the 1920’s, product innovation that caused less labor, President Roosevelt believed that it was caused by the structural problems and doubted simulative spending will solve the problem, and some argued it was caused by the shift toward modern employment relation that was made by the Great War. A Depression in the economy can start by raising taxes and dismissing government’s employees and both of these actions can start a depression and both of these were done by the government in 1929. Once this is done, it will have a chain reaction where it will get to the point where the economy will fall and cause its people to live in poverty. The prices of the products will either increase or stay the same but the wages of the people will always decrease.
Perhaps the worst economic downturn in the history of the United States occurred from 1930-1939. The Great Depression led to domestic and international crises effecting the poor and wealthy alike. Many financial experts today continue to debate the cause of The Depression, although most agree that several events led to the economic decline. The famous stock market crash on October 29, 1929 is just one of many causes economists believe led to The Great Depression. Known also as Black Tuesday, October 29th left stockholders shattered with recorded losses reaching $40 billion dollars (Kelly, n.d.).
Effectively, then, almost one out of every two U.S. households directly experienced unemployment or underemployment. For workers' families already facing hard times, the Depression's unemployment woes wreaked unprecedented, catastrophic havoc. The Great Depression was a worldwide economic contraction which brought about economic hardship and in some nations, political instability. In the United States a general banking failure brought about increased government regulation of the financial sector along with the broadening of the social safety net through the introduction of Social Security. Unemployment, which reached 25%, was relieved partially by Public Works (The WPA).
Despite caution of the dangers of speculation, many believed that the market could sustain high price levels. Before the crash, economist Irving Fisher famously proclaimed, ‘’Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.’’ The optimism and financial gains of the great bull market where shattered on ‘’Black Thursday’’, October 24, 1929, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) collapsed. Stock prices plummeted on that day, and continued to fall at an unprecedented rate for a full month. The 1929, crash came during a period of declining real estate values in the United States (which came up a round 1925) near the beginning of a chain of events that led to the Great Depression, a period of economic decline in the industrialized nations. After a six year run the world saw an Industrial Average increase in value fivefold, prices peaked at 381.17 on September 3, 1929.
The New Deal On November 1918, World War I ended and brought with it a feeling of elation that was translated into the early 1920’s, an era of jazz, promiscuity, and romanticized crime. After World War I, the United States emerged victorious and although Woodrow Wilson did not achieve some of his goals, such as the League of Nations, the country was in excellent shape. However, this sentiment of happiness caused people to invest more and more money. When the stock market crashed in 1929, the Great Depression began. Herbert Hoover, ill equipped to deal with the crisis was soon voted out of office and Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected.
Quincy Terrell Mrs. Stevens English III 10 December 2010 American’s Greed Leads to Poverty Republican nominee Herbert Hoover shared some hopeful words with Americans in 1928. He said that the day was in sight “when poverty will be banished from this nation.” This turned out to be was wishful thinking. One percent of the richest families in America during this time received one fourth of all U.S. income (Brinkley2). Buying stocks on margin became very popular during the 1920s. People began to abuse this system to invest huge amounts of imaginary money that only existed on paper, which back fired when the prices of stocks began to fall and they did not have money to pay for the stocks purchased (Lonkevich4).
Only six months after Hoover took office, the economy collapsed and the Great Depression began. Many factors caused and contributed to the Great Depression of 1929. One factor would be the overproductions of many goods in the 1920s led to worker layoffs Another factor was that easy credit led to people spending more than they had, and it led to a rapid inflation that eventually caused people to stop buying. The Federal Reserve Bank, created in 1913, did a poor job which also led to the great depression. It did not monitor interest rates to help regulate the economy when overproduction and inflation had started to cause unemployment in 1928-29 and the economy seemed likely headed toward collapse.
When did the Great Depression occur? The Great Depression occurred October 29, 1929, known as black Tuesday. The end of the depression is the United States is as associated with the war economy of World War II, beginning around 1939. Why did the Great Depression occur? The Great Depression occurred because a stock market mart had been an important source of funding for industry.
Is it 1930s all over again? Many people draw parallels between today and the 1930s, labeling the present-day state of affairs the Great Recession. They note the high unemployment rate, referring not to the mis-measured, official statistic, but to the number more than double that rate, which also accounts for those who have dropped out from the labor force and are no longer counted as "unemployed". Others worry about the deflationary risk, dollar devaluation, and the status of the US dollar as a reserve currency. Still others worry that the "vital few" - those with high scientific aptitudes and entrepreneurial drive - no longer come to or stay in the United States, but stay in or go back to the many countries whose Iron Curtains have