1920s Economic Boom

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When most people think of the U.S in the 1920s, they think of the up and coming sports industry, flapper girls, and all the new technology that was coming out. What many people don’t think of is all the ups and downs that the economy was experiencing. From the economical adjustments after WW1 and the worker strikes, all the way to the booming economy and eventual crash of the stock market. With that being said, it is safe to say that the 1920s had its fair share of ups and downs. Although the 1920s had many great attributes, it is still most widely known for the disastrous stock market crash. After the end of World War 1, the United States of America was in a pit of hurt trying to stabilize the economy again. In the end, however, they somehow …show more content…

It seemed as though nothing was going to be able to stop the growth. But as per usual, all good things must come to an end eventually. This rather big boom was caused by a few different reasons. First off, the United States of America had an essential supply of natural resources such as timber, iron, coal, minerals, oil and land. This enabled America to become a huge power source at the beginning of the twentieth century, as these resources were an important foundation for the economy. Not only that, but chain stores like J.C. Penney were also appearing for the first time. Catalog shopping was also becoming a big deal as it was a convenient way of buying goods. Perhaps the last and biggest boost to the economy was the growing car industry. By 1929 Americans owned an approximate 23 million cars. The car workers earned good wages for, thousands of jobs were created, roads and petrol stations were built, as were hotels and restaurants. Therefore the entire economy was given a substantial boost due to the car industry ("What were the causes of the economic boom?"). Although the U.S was on a hot streak for quite some time, they were still unable to stop the …show more content…

Perhaps the 2 biggest reasons were irrational exuberance and the mismatch between production and consumption. Most of the stock market crash can be blamed on irrational exuberance and false expectations. In the years leading up to 1929, the stock market made offers for potential making huge gains in wealth. It was like the new gold rush (Pettinger). People were becoming addicted to buying shares. They would spend all their money doing so and then just go borrow more money to buy even more shares. With that being said, the market got caught up in a speculative bubble, and because of that, prices were not being driven by economic fundamentals, but by the optimism of investors. While people were spending all their money on shares the demand for consumer goods and new cars was struggling to keep up with the production rate, and because of that, many businesses were struggling to sell all of their items. This caused quite a bit of the disappointing profit results which brought about the falls in share prices. In 1929, there was already warning signs from the economy with falling car sales, lower steel production and a slowdown in housing construction. However, despite these warning signs, people still kept buying shares. In the end, the 1929 Stock Market crash was the result of various economic imbalances and structural failings (Pettinger). If people would have been more level headed and

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