Essay about The Ingredients of the Great Depression

The Great Depression first started as early as 1928, but did not affect the United States until 1929. The Great Stock Market crash started the event of the Depression here in America, but was not the main cause to why it happened. During the early stages of the depression, President Hoover failed to help the economy and continued with his belief system of giving people the least help they needed, so they can earn themselves a rightful spot with pride, not with government’s help. The Great Depression was a very intense experience for us, even until today, the

The stock market crash, called Black Tuesday. Unequal distribution of wealth was a key factor during the time period as well. The day know as “Black Tuesday” was the day the stock market crashed. This led to the fall of stock prices, in fear, people sold their stocks and gathered the money they could. The people who didn’t, lost all of their stocks. Those who bought them on credit, they were now in debt. Investors lost a collective amount equal to the amount spent in WWI, that’s billions of dollars gone, approximately thirty-two billion dollars (32,000,000,000). As bad as the crash was, unequal distribution of wealth did not help. The rich saw an income increase of 70%, and the poor saw an increase of 9%. More than 70% of families earned less than $2500/year. Many of these families couldn't afford household products, such as the flood of overproduced goods. Only one out of ten families owned an electric refrigerator. One thing many people overlook when on the subject of the Great Depression is the president's influence on the situation. The two presidents during this time were Herbet Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Hoover was in office during the collapse of the economy, he didn’t believe in national relief, he believed in self-prevalence and self-help. His beliefs didn’t get the confidence of the people, in 1933, a fourth of working American’s were out of a job, that’s more than fifteen million people unemployed. Many people disliked Hoover, so when they needed to make a home out of paper, glass, tin, or whatever they could find, they named the towns constructed from these items “Hoovervilles”. They were found mostly on the outside of cities. Hoover's idea of self-reliance didn’t get him reelected, he lost to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. Roosevelt brought forward a new strategy to take on the economic problems, it was called the New Deal. The New Deal was a series of actions him and his

The use of credit to buy entertainment created an speculative bubble which finally burst in 1929 with the stock market crash and people “running on banks” desperate to get the money in their savings. This caused over 600 banks to close 6 days before the end of 1929. The banks only had so much money and once the money ran out, it was gone forever. One man, a janitor had $1000 saved up over 40 years and lost it all when he could not get to the bank in time. By 1933 some states had no banks open, 1000s of homes were foreclosed and 34% of americans had no source of income. The innovation of technology caused many people to buy on credit and when the people could not pay it back since all the banks were closed the economy was brought to a

As people became unemployed, the economy suffered because these workers were unable to purchase things. For example, Document 4 shows that at the beginning of 1933, the US employment percentage was above a quarter of the population, and from 1931 to 1940 the unemployment percentage was in the double digits. These large unemployment percentages had a devastating effect on companies who were trying to sell their products to consumers who are always a major driver of the economy. High unemployment along with the stock market crash were a few of the main causes of the Great

Throughout the many years of the Great Depression, the American economy plummeted greatly because of ongoing issues throughout the United States. The American market, and essentially continuously buying, are what keeps an economy in any country moving. The point at issue which allowed the economy to go down consists of three major factors. All three of these aspects took a great amount of citizens down along with all of their profits. Families, businesses, and employees struggled to stay standing during this time period. The American economy suffered this vast plunge because speculation in the stock market, maldistribution of income, and overproduction of goods.

With the economy falling in shambles and companies defaulting on loans, nearly all private and corporate investment ceased. Companies couldn’t afford to expand, and in fact, many had to consolidate in order to cover the margins on their loans. This meant postponing hiring and laying workers off, which caused unemployment to skyrocket. With people now willing to work for less money, wages lessened too. At the same time prices rose in an attempt by companies to make some amount of profit off the goods.

Firms cut back on purchases of produce goods and the consumers cut back on the purchases of consumer goods (Galbraith 117). This uncertainty mixed with the stock market crash created the biggest recession America has ever seen.

<br>The nations unequal distribution of wealth also contributed to the severity of the depression. During the 1920s the share of the national income

In the 1920s, American economy had a great time. The vast majority of Americans in 1929 foresaw a continuation of the dizzying economic growth that had taken place in most of the decade. However, the prices of stock crested in early September of 1929. The price of stock fell gradually during most of September and early October. On “Black Tuesday” 29 October 1929, the stock market fell by forty points. After that, a historically great and long economic depression started and lasted until the start of the Second World War. The three causes of the Great Depression are installment buying, uneven distribution of wealth and the irrational behavior in the stock market.

Banks closed since the loans they gave out couldn’t be repaid, and in the 1930’s, the money that a citizen put in the bank wasn’t federally ensured, so when a bank closed, the money that people stored inside it was lost (Giltin, 70). Additionally, since so many people were in debt, they couldn’t afford to buy as much as they used to, and goods were not being bought as often. This caused companies to sell less, so many people were let go from their jobs because they required less people to make their goods (Giltin, 88).

However, the more income coming in meant the more money people were spending. Since everyone was buying on credit, it allowed people to overspend and go over their budgets. It was highly encouraged during this time period to spend money on new products being made to up social class. For example, the stock market. They raised prices on stock

The next major factor that contributed to the Great Depression was the reduction of goods being purchased during the time period. After the stock market crashed, consumers from

The world had faced two main economic problems. The first one was the Great Depression in the early of 20th Century. The second was the recent international financial crisis in 2008. The United States and Europe suffered severely for a long time from the great depression. The great depression was a great step and changed completely the economic policy making and the economic thoughts. It was not only an economic situation bit it was also miserable making, made people more attention and aggressive until they might lose their lives. All the society was frightened from losing money, work and stable. In America the housing market was the main factor of the great depression. A crisis of liquidity appeared in the banks forming a credit crunch. This period was influenced by over extended stock market shortage of water in the south and over trusting. The American government put down some regulations to control the productions which were essential for the war.

Maldistribution of wealth was not limited to socioeconomic classes, but to entire industries as well. While the

One of the causes were Uneven Prosperity, 0.1% of families made 100,000$ a year, and 80% had zero savings. 200 companies controlled 49% of all U.S industry