The Causes Of The Great Depression

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The Great Depression was a period of first-time decline in economic movement. 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). When the stock market started failing many factories closed production of all types of good. Businesses and banks started closing down and farmers fell into bankruptcy. Many people lost everything, their jobs, their savings, and homes. More than thirteen million people were unemployed. The Great Depression caused major political changes. Three years after the great depression started, Herbert Hoover lost the 1932 presidential election Two months after the stock market crash, stockholders lost more than fourteen million dollars; it dropped more than 40%. It continued to decrease; it went down to nearly 90% from its 1929 highs. Before the crash the 1920s were known for the roaring twenties, parties, extravagant outfits, and the music. It was the decade where people were known to spend money, they were not afraid of spending it. But when banks started to crash that is when people started to panic and was trying to get their money back, millions of Americans lost fortunes. This caused companies to lose their values and no longer be able to afford to stay in business. William C. Durant joined the Rockefeller family and other financial giants to buy big stocks to prove to the people their assurance in the market but they failed to stop decline in prices. According to the website Globalyceum, US gross domestic product, in 1929 $103.6 billion, in 1930 $91.2, in 1931 $76.5, in 1932 $58.7, in 1933 $56.4. The total size of the American economy, restrained by gross local product, suddenly dropped following the crash on Wall Street from $103.6 billion to $66 This lead to in whites moving blacks out of jobs, they conventionally engaged. Racial wage differences (wages for black’s averaged 30 percent less than for whites) caused African Americans to participate in the Great Depression in stricter terms than whites. Finally, New Deal policies had tragic penalties for blacks. Because the Great Depression significantly reduced employment occasions in the North for blacks, the step of Southern black emigration slowed significantly during the 1930s. The Great depression though, increase the number of African Americans migrant workers. “The Great Depression also witnessed the entry of African Americans into the ranks of organized labor in unprecedented numbers. The formation in 1938of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, an outgrowth of the American Federation of Labors Committee for Industrial Organization established in 1935, was crucial to this development”

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