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Essay on the great depression aftermath
Introduction about the great depression
Impacts of great depression
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After the great depression back in the 1930’s, America would think they would never run into an economic scare again, until 80 years later when the next big economic disaster would strike. The 2008 economic collapse would not only be triggered and felt by America, but the entire globe as well. You would think that the United States would have a fail-safe plan on defending off another economic crash, but they didn’t and had shown weakness. The 2008 economic collapse is usually refereed to as the global financial crises or the great recession. With the allegation of collapse from large financial institutions, and the bailout of banks by the government, began the second great depression. Many believe that we are still stuck in this recession and have not completed anything to get out of this situation that’s affecting our nation. I believe that the economic crash in 2008 was the finale building block towards a more structural society, political system, and government in the United States of America.
There are a vast amount of listed causes that lead to the 2008 economic collapse, but only a few really dealt the damage. The problems arrived over a period of time from 1995 to 2008. The first and main problems that lead to the economic collapse was sub prime mortgages. Sub prime mortgage is a certain kind of loan granted to people with poor credit histories, who which wouldn’t usually be qualified for conventional mortgages (Investopedia). These sup prime mortgages would backfire on banks across the nation resulting in huge financial loses. According to USA Today, “Housing crisis deepens. Banks and hedge funds that invested big in sub prime mortgages are left with worthless assets as foreclosures rise. The damage reaches the top echelo...
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...ate wealth (GovermentStatSheet). Since then the American political economy has grown, strengthened, and reinforced the future since the learning period of 2008. The great recession is proven to be a point in time when financial funds didn’t exist but the United States government has analyzed and can now predict identical causes and annihilate them before they arise again.
Works Cited
"How to Fix the U.S. Financial Crisis." Scientific American Global RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 May 2014.
"Jobs." The White House. The White House, n.d. Web. 16 May 2014.
"Real Solutions to the Financial Crisis." Name. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 May 2014.
"Recovery.gov." What Is ? N.p., n.d. Web. 15 May 2014.
"A Solution to Our Financial Crisis." Fabius Maximus. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 May 2014.
Usatoday. "Timeline: Key Events in Financial Crisis." USA Today. Gannett, 09 Sept. 2013. Web. 16 May 2014.
2007-2008-2009 global financial crisis - many people compared to the experience to another large scale depression - now coined “great recession”
Waggoner, John. "Is Today's Economic Crisis Another Great Depression?" USA Today. N.p., 4 Nov. 2008. Web. 7 Mar. 2014.
The Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis of 2008 has been the largest financial crisis to take place since the end of the Great Depression. It was the actions of individuals and companies that caused this crisis. For although it could have been adverted, too much money was being made by too many people in place of authority to think deeply on the situation. As such, by the time actions were taken to attempt to rectify the situation, it was already too late. Trillions of dollar of tax payers’ money was spent trying to repair the situation that was caused by the breakdown of ethics and accountability in the private sector. And despite the government’s actions to attempt to contain the crisis, hundreds of thousands lives were negatively affected before, during, and after this crisis.
The years berween 1929 and 1933 were trying years for people throughout the world. Inflation was often so high money became nearly worthless. America had lost the prosperity it had known during the 1920's. America was caught in a trap of a complete meltdown of economy, workers had no jobs simply because it cost too much to ship the abundance of goods being produced. This cycle was unbreakable, and produced what is nearly universally recognized as the greatest economic collapse of all times. These would be trying years for all, but not every American faced the same challenges and hardships. (Sliding 3)
It can be argued that the economic hardships of the great recession began when interest rates were lowered by the Federal Reserve. This caused a bubble in the housing market. Housing prices plummeted, home prices plummeted, then thousands of borrowers could no longer afford to pay on their loans (Koba, 2011). The bubble forced banks to give out homes loans with unreasonably high risk rates. The response of the banks caused a decline in the amount of houses purchased and “a crisis involving mortgage loans and the financial securities built on them” (McConnell, 2012 p.479). The effect on the economy was catastrophic and caused a “pandemic” of foreclosures that effected tens of thousands home owners across the U.S. (Scaliger, 2013). The debt burden eventually became unsustainable and the U.S. crisis deepened as the long-term effect on bank loans would affect not only the housing market, but also the job market.
After the end of the World War I in 1920, the United States entered in a period where great changes were made. During this period known as the New Era of the 1920’s, many innovations were taking place as well as many economic developments, which were stimulating the way through a change in America’s society. However, while for some Americans this was an era of better opportunities for living, some others were suffering the consequences. Later on, with an unequal distribution of wealth and low incomes, America’s economy was in a vulnerable point of a catastrophic collapse. And so it was. By the end of the 1920’s, when the stock market crashed, the prosperity of that period disappeared and the nation was sunk into an economic catastrophe known as the Great Depression. Many factors constituted the reasons for this collapse, for example, the Wall Street crash, the oligopolies domination over American industries, the weaknesses in some industries (textile, coal and agriculture), and also the government policies and international economic difficulties. Then, by the early 1930 with the depression spreading and affecting the entire society, the policies, philosophy and optimism that Herbert Hoover had brought to his presidency was being challenged. As a result, by the time of the elections in 1932, Hoover lost the presidency against the candidate of the Democratic Party, Franklin D. Roosevelt and his campaign of what he called the New Deal. Based on this, FDR pushed towards many solutions for the “crises of a collapsing financial system, crippling unemployment, and agricultural and industrial breakdown” (Goldfield, Page 704). Even thought when various changes were made, it was during the period right after the elections of 1936 that polit...
What caused the Great Recession that lasted from December 2007 to June 2009 in the United States? The United States a country with abundance of resources from jobs, education, money and power went from one day of economic balance to the next suffering major dimensions crisis. According to the Economic Policy Institute, it all began in 2007 from the credit crisis, which resulted in an 8 trillion dollar housing bubble (n.d.). This said by Economist analysts to attributed to the collapse in the United States. Even today, strong debates continue over major issues caused by the Great Recession in part over the accommodative federal monetary and fiscal policy (Economic Policy Institute, 2013). The Great Recession of 2007 – 2009 enlarges the longest financial crisis since the Great Depression of 1929 – 1932 that damaged the economy.
The Great Depression often seems very distant to people of the 21st century. This article is a good reminder of potential problems that may reoccur. The article showed in a very literal way the idea that a depression can bring a growing country to its knees. The overall ramifications of the event were never discussed in detail, but the historical significance is that people's lives were put on hold while they tried to struggle through an extremely difficult time.
Cabral, R. (2013). A perspective on the symptoms and causes of the financial crisis. Journal of Banking & Finance, 37, 103-117
middle of paper ... ... It is evident that although we may be entering into a recession on different terms than the one before, the United States is still in danger of once again becoming a victim of another Great Depression. The Great Depression is a time in the history of the United States that people have learned and gained knowledge from. Its harsh times and conflicts have been written about in books, seen in movies, talked about on radios, and told to families throughout the generations.
The financial crisis occurred in 2008, where the world economy experienced the most dangerous crisis ever since the Great Depression of the 1930s. It started in 2007 when the home prices in the U.S. Dropped significantly, spreading very quickly, initially to the financial sector of the U.S. and subsequently to the financial markets in other countries.
The recession officially began when the 8 trillion dollar housing bubble burst. (State of Working America, 2012) Prior to that, institutions bundled mortgage debt into derivatives that were sold to financial investors. Derivatives were initially intended to manage risk and to protect against the downside, but the investors used them to take on more risk to maximize their profits and returns. (Zucchi, 2010). The investors bought insurance against losses that might arise from securities so that they could secure their money. Mortgage defaults unexpectedly skyrocketed, which caused securitization and the insurance structure to collapse. (McConnell, Brue, Flynn, 2012). The moral hazard problem arose. The large firm investors thought they were too big for the government to allow them to fail. They had the incentive to make even more risky investment.
(Murphy, 2008) The US banking sector was first hit with a crisis amongst liquidity and declining world stock markets as well. The subprime mortgage crisis was characterized by a decrease within the housing market due to excessive individuals and corporate debt along with risky lending and borrowing practices. Over time, the market apparently began displaying more weaknesses as the global financial system was being affected. With this being said, this brings into question who is actually to blame for this financial fiasco.
Something that may come to everyone’s mind nowadays and the number one thing that is looked at after a presidential election and every New Year is stock. Stocks determine the health of the economy, the money people are willing to invest, take risks on and win back or lose, but because of the crash, it discouraged people from investing in stocks and instead a huge amount of withdrawals happened leading to the economic collapse that occurred. The U.S. government began to worry it would run out of gold because everyone began to turn the couple dollars they still had into gold, so the Federal Reserve decided to increase the value of the dollar. Banks began to fail and lose savings; people had to withdraw the money they had left, leaving banks no other choice but to shut down. In turn, everything in the present and the future is judged through the stocks as they hold a high importance in industrialized economies showing the healthiness of said countries economy.
Warwick J. McKibbin, and Andrew Stoeckel. “The Global Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences.” Lowy Institute for International Policy 2.09 (2009): 1. PDF file.