The Stock Market: The Causes Of The Great Depression

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The Great Depression was an economic recession that began on October 29, 1929, following the crash of the U.S. stock market. This was a tremendous tragedy that placed millions of Americans out of work and was the beginning of government involvement in the economy and in society as a whole. The crash of the stock market is what ultimately caused this depression. After about a decade of prosperity, the US was thrown into despair on Black Tuesday as stock prices plummeted. Numerous amounts of people tried to sell their stock, but no one would buy. The stock market, which once was the surest ways to become rich, quickly became an easy path to bankruptcy. During the depression, life was hard everywhere. City life was miserably crowded and unsanitary. Many people were homeless due to people not having jobs. These homeless people either lived on the streets, squatted in buildings, or lived in Hoovervilles. A Hooverville was a poorly built town that was built by the homeless. They were named Hoovervilles after president Hoover, who was widely blamed for the depression. People stopped buying ...

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