What caused the Great Depression?
– Stock speculative fever. Millions of shares were bought on margin.
– Debt. Introduction of personal credit. Large bank loans to post WWI Europian countries.
– Pride (most Americans believed that the US was so wealthy and powerful that it could not fall)
What were some warning signs before the depression?
– Deflation
– Falling production
– Increasing unemployment
When did the stock market crash?
October 24, 1929 (Black Thursday) – DJIA fell 9%
October 29, 1929 (Black Tuesday) – DJIA fell 17.3%
What occurred during the depression?
– Between 1929 and 1933, 100,000 businesses failed
– By 1933 11,000 of the U.S.’s 25,000 banks had failed
– By 1932, 25% unemployment
– Over the four years from 1929 to 1933, production at the nation’s factories, mines, and utilities fell by more than half
– People’s real disposable incomes dropped 28 percent
– Stock prices collapsed to one-tenth of their pre-crash height
– The gross national product declined from the 1929 figure of $103,828,000,000 to $55,760,000,000 in 1933
What resulted from the Great Depression?
– Increase of federal government (Social Security Act, SEC, FDIC)
– Rise of Adolf Hitler to power. The depression cut off loans that Germany depended on to pay for war reparations. Rise in unemployment caused Germans to look for a new leader.
What ended the Great Depression?
– It was not the governmental acts that ended the depression, it was WWII (Pearl Harbor attacked on December 1941)
Links
Google Links
Yahoo Links
SearchBeat Links
Great Depression – SparkNotes
America’s Great Depression – Amatecon
Great Depression – Encarta
Wikipedia
Sliding into the Great Depression – Brad DeLong
Timeline of the Great Depression – PBS
Timeline of the Great Depression – Korpios
Photos – Library of Congress
Learning Bank: 30s – FDIC
Homes and the Stock Market Crash of the 1930’s
The Main Causes of the Great Depression – Gusmorino
Culture during the Depression
Great Myths of the Great Depression – Mackinac
Crash of 29 – NY Times
1929 – 32 DJIA Crash vs. 2000 – 01 Nasdaq Crash – Chart of similarities
Great Depression – Infoplease
1921-41 DJIA Chart
Economic Indicators of the Great Depression
1927-1933 Chart of Pompous Prognosticators