The Great Depression The Great Depression was an economic slump in North America, Europe, and other industrialized areas of the world that began in 1929 and lasted until about 1939. There were a few main areas of focus during the Great Depression. The key areas were the Crash of the Stock Market, Unemployment Rate, the effect on the rest of the world, World War II and our political out look and the way different countries handle themselves today. The Great Depression was the longest and most severe depression ever experienced by the industrialized Western world. Though the U.S. economy had gone into depression six months earlier, the Great Depression may be said to have begun with a catastrophic collapse of stock-market prices on the New York Stock Exchange in October 1929, when President Hoover came in office. During the next three years stock prices in the United States continued to fall, until by late 1932 they had dropped to only about 20 percent of their value in 1929 (www.english.uiuc.edu). Some of the stock figures I received from (www.huppi.com) indicate the changes of the Gross National Product from 1930 until 1939. The Gross National Product, or GNP, for 1930 had a negative change of 9.4 percent. In 1931, the GNP continued to decline another 8.5 percent. In 1932 it dropped another 13.4 percent and continued to drop 2.1 percent in 1933. In 1934 the GNP made a turn for the better and started to increase by 7.7 percent and continued to rise in 1935 with an increase of 8.1 percent. During 1936 and 1937 the GNP rose for a combined amount of 19.1 percent but do to the beginning of recession in 1938 it had a drop of 4.5 percent. Once Recession ended the GNP went up 7.9 percent in 1939. (Www.english.uiuc.edu) tells us that besides ruining many thousands of individual investors, this precipitous decline in the value of assets greatly strained banks and other financial institutions, particularly those holding stocks in their portfolios. Many banks were consequently forced into insolvency; by 1933, 11,000 of the United States' 25,000 banks had failed. The failure of so many banks, combined with a general and nationwide loss of confidence in the economy, led to much-reduced levels of spending and demand and hence of production, thus aggravating the downward spiral. “The result was drastically falling output and drastically rising unemployment; ... ... middle of paper ... ...its were contracting it; The Fed's inaction was the reason why the initial recession turned into a prolonged depression; The economy continually sank throughout Hoover's entire term. Under Roosevelt's New Deal, it rose five out of seven years. Attempts to blame Big Government for the Depression do not withstand serious scrutiny; The Smoot-Hawley Tariff had a minor impact because trade formed only 6 percent of the U.S. economy, and reducing trade gave Americans only that much more money to spend domestically. Hoover's other attempts at government intervention came mostly during his last year in office, when the Depression was already at its depth; The first nations to come out of the Great Depression were Sweden, Germany, Great Britain, and then everyone else did so after they adopted the Keynesian solution of heavy deficit government spending and the Keynesian economic policies have eliminated the depression from the world's economies in the six decades that have followed. Works Cited WWW.huppi.com WWW.english.uiuc.edu Nelson Cary Kennedy, David Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War Oxford, New York 1999 Oxford University Press
Historians claim that Hoovers term during the depression was filled with false promises and accuse the president of doing nothing while the depression worsened. Along with worsening the debt and a fairly aggressive use of government it is clear his approach towards the situation was not the best. FDR’s approach would prove during his administration to suffice in the augmentation of the crisis. Although it seemed like a completely opposite presidency, many ideas came from his predecessor. Roosevelt’s team of advisors understood that much of what they produced and fashioned into the New Deal owed its origins to Hoover’s policies.
The stock market crash of 1929 set in motion a chain of events that would plunge the United States into a deep depression. The Great Depression of the 1930's spelled the end of an era of economic prosperity during the 1920's. Herbert Hoover was the unlucky president to preside over this economic downturn, and he bore the brunt of the blame for the depression. Hoover believed the root cause of the depression was international, and he therefore believed that restoring the gold standard would ultimately drag the United States out of depression by reviving international trade. Hoover initiated many new domestic works programs aimed at creating jobs, but it seemed to have no effect as the unemployment rate continued to rise. The Democrats nominated Franklin Roosevelt as their candidate for president in 1932 against the incumbent Hoover. Roosevelt was elected in a landslide victory in part due to his platform called "The New Deal". This campaign platform was never fully explained by Roosevelt prior to his election, but it appealed to the American people as something new and different from anything Hoover was doing to ameliorate the problem. The Roosevelt administration's response to the Great Depression served to remedy some of the temporary employment problems, while drastically changing the role of the government, but failed to return the American economy to the levels of prosperity enjoyed during the 1920's.
One main cause of the depression was the overproduction of farming and factory goods. The nation was so over-productive that its citizens couldn't afford to pay for these goods because all of the money was going into production fees, and not salaries When Hoover enacted the Hawley-Smoot Tariff, U.S. goods acquired an enormously high 60% tax rate, this was part of the reason for the depression, since no other countries wanted to pay the high tariff rate just to buy goods from the United States. While Hoover thought that he was helping the economy with this tariff, it turns out that all he did was isolate the U.S. from Europe and other parts of the world that would normally trade with the United States. President Hoover also thought that the government shouldn't give the citizens any direct help, when in fact, that was exactly what they needed to do. Instead of going out into the community and directly helping people, Hoover thought that if he created “public works” like the Hoover Dam, he could create jobs, and help citizens ...
1.The great depression was a time between late 1929 to 1939 and was completely ended during World War Two. It started with a series of events, most famously the Wall Street stock market crash, that induce poverty on the American citizens. It caused the downfall of the US economy.
The Great Depression was a period in United States history when business was poor and many people were out of work. The beginning of the Great Depression in the United States was associated with the stock market crash on October 29, 1929, known as Black Tuesday. Thousands of investors lost large amounts of money and many were wiped out, lost everything. Banks, stores, and factories were closed and left millions of Americans jobless and homeless (Baughman 82).
The Stock Market Crash of 1929 caused the Great Depression, allowing Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt to take some action as president. Hoover however did much less than FDR. Roosevelt was fully prepared for action as soon as he took office unlike Herbert Hoover, who has been said to be a “do-nothing” president. Luckily with Roosevelt’s efforts, his Bank Holiday, and the New Deal the U.S. was taken out of the depression and the federal government became much more involved in people’s everyday economic and social lives.
Great Depression was one of the most severe economic situation the world had ever seen. It all started during late 1929 and lasted till 1939. Although, the origin of depression was United Sattes but with US Economy being highly correlated with global economy, the ill efffects were seen in the whole world with high unemployment, low production and deflation. Overall it was the most severe depression ever faced by western industrialized world. Stock Market Crashes, Bank Failures and a lot more, left the governments ineffective and this lead the global economy to what we call today- ‘’Great Depression’’.(Rockoff). As for the cause and what lead to Great Depression, the issue is still in debate among eminent economists, but the crux provides evidence that the worst ever depression ever expereinced by Global Economy stemed from multiple causes which are as follows:
October 29th, 1929 marked the beginning of the Great Depression, a depression that forever changed the United States of America. The Stock Market collapse was unavoidable considering the lavish life style of the 1920’s. Some of the ominous signs leading up to the crash was that there was a high unemployment rate, automobile sales were down, and many farms were failing. Consumerism played a key role in the Stock Market Crash of 1929 because Americans speculated on the stocks hoping they would grow in their favor. They would invest in these stocks at a low rate which gave them a false sense of wealth causing them to invest in even more stocks at the same low rate. When they purchased these stocks at this low rate they never made enough money to pay it all back, therefore contributing to the crash of 1929. Also contributing to the crash was the over production of consumer goods. When companies began to mass produce goods they did not not need as many workers so they fired them. Even though there was an abundance of goods mass produced and at a cheap price because of that, so many people now had no jobs so the goods were not being purchased. Even though, from 1920 to 1929, consumerism and overproduction partially caused the Great Depression, the unequal distribution of wealth and income was the most significant catalyst.
The Great Depression was a period, which seemed to go out of control. The crashing of the stock markets left most Canadians unemployed and in debt, prairie farmers suffered immensely with the inability to produce valuable crops, and the Canadian Government and World War II became influential factors in the ending of the Great Depression.
In fact, Hoover is ranked 9th place in the worst presidents list, according to U.S. News. Perhaps of his shy and introverted personality, he decided not fix the Great Depression because he did not want to make the situation worse. Although, doing something is better than doing nothing. Also, he sent the Army to clear America’s WWI veterans from their campsite in Washington D.C. The infantry and cavalry paired with six tanks were ordered to clear out the veterans and their families, Hoover killed his own people. On the other hand, fortunately, Franklin Delano Roosevelt came into office on January 30th, 1882. Instead of doing nothing, FDR fought the Depression with his New Deal; which was a group of U.S.government programs whose purpose was to help the country recover from economic problems. The New Deal was a success and brought relief to many Americans. With this in mind, President Herbert Hoover’s presidency was a
The Great Depression was the worst and longest economic downturn in the history of the world economy. The Depression began in 1929 and lasted until 1939. The Great Depression damaged the global status of the United States. This economic meltdown affected Western industrialized economies but its effects spread across other nations. The Great Depression began in the United States, which experienced its worst effects. However, some argue that the Depression began about 10 years earlier in Europe but the United States assumed that it was immune to such a downturn. Consequently, the American government at that time did not formulate policies and measures to ensure that the country did not experience the same meltdown as Europe.
The Great Depression was the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world, lasting from 1929 to 1939. It began after the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into a frenzy and wiped out millions of investors. Over the next several years, consumer spending and investments halted, causing steep decrease in industrial output and employment as failing companies due the the fact workers were laid off. By 1933, when the Great Depression reached its lowest point, some 15 million Americans were unemployed and nearly half the country’s banks were closed until further notice.
The Great Depression was the deepest and longest-lasting economic downfall in the history of the United Sates. No event has yet to rival The Great Depression to the present day today although we have had recessions in the past, and some economic panics, fears. Thankfully the United States of America has had its shares of experiences from the foundation of this country and throughout its growth many economic crises have occurred. In the United States, the Great Depression began soon after the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors ("The Great Depression."). In turn from this single tragic event, numerous amounts of chain reactions occurred.
The Great Depression was a devastating global economic recession, triggered by the stock market crash of 1929. Though it was a global phenomenon, it is safe to say that it hit the United states harder than any other country. Many solely know of the event that took place in 1929, the stock market crash, and fail to realize that that was merely the most obvious display of damage caused to the economy due to an accumulation of various factors. After The Crash, the economy continually deteriorates from that point, regardless of the many attempts made by many different people to, in some way or for, improve the economy. Though it is not until the beginning of World War II that all begins to better itself.
The Great Depression was a period of first-time decline in economic activity. It occurred between the years 1929 and 1939. It was the worst and longest economic breakdown in history. The Wall Street stock market crash started the Great Depression. It had terrible effects on the country (United States of America).