Economic Effects Of The Great Depression

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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 …show more content…

Investors in the stock market could not pay their loans. These included real estate companies. People demanded their deposits from banks in panic and as a result, there was less money in circulation. Government’s efforts to reverse the resultant deflation did not yield results. Companies closed down because of deflation and low demand while some laid down thousands of their workers. Consequently, unemployment levels increased. Real estate properties that were once prized possessions lost value. Investors in real estate could not pay their mortgages. Banks repossessed their properties, which were worthless because no one could afford to buy them. Over nine thousands failed closed down. Nations had to implement major changes in their macroeconomic policies and institutions to recover from the Great …show more content…

But Hoover refused to involve the federal government in forcing fixed prices, controlling businesses, or manipulating the value of the currency, all of which he felt were steps towards socialism. He was inclined to give indirect aid to banks or local public works projects, but he refused to use federal money for direct aid to citizens, believing the dole would weaken public morale. Instead, he focused on volunteerism to raise money. Hoover’s opponents painted him as uncaring toward the common citizen, even though he was in fact a philanthropist and a progressive before becoming president. During his reelection campaign, Hoover tried to convince Americans that the measures they were calling for might seem to help in the short term, but would be ruinous in the long run. He asserted that he cared for common Americans too much to destroy the country’s foundations with deficits and socialist institutions.
The Great Depression still affect us in many ways today. America expanded government intervention into new areas of social and economic affairs and the creation of more social assistance agencies . The government took on greater roles on the everyday social and economic life of people. FDR also created a liberal political alliance that was made up of labor unions, blacks, poor and farmers. The groups that grew in a alliance ended up being the Democratic that we have

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