The Great Depression 1930s America

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The Great Depression The Great Depression is an era in United States history known by many, but with recent comparisons of today’s economy to the economy during the 1930s it sparks a question. How similar is our economy today to that of the era of the Great Depression? With evidence like “Federal Writers’ Project Interviews with Depression Victims”, notes from Professor Newman, and a movie based in the 1930’s called Changeling, it seems a little overboard to compare our economy of theirs. The Great Depression was a time in United States history that many wish to forget, it was a moment of weakness and struggle. It can’t be compared to the events of today’s “bad” economy because it surpassed it. The Great Depression lasted from 1929 to 1941…show more content…
President Roosevelt was there every step of the way after the crash during Hoover’s presidency. The start of the crash began with “Bull Markets”, meaning, stocks were becoming overpriced and not based on the actual value of the company. A stock market crash was bound to happen but at that time people didn’t care. People were buying loans like crazy in order to buy stocks, over 10 billion dollars was loaned to these people. In a lecture by Professor Newman, it was made known of the concept “selling short”, meaning, big businessmen would try to make more money on a market they knew was going down, and with that came a lot of common people losing money. When prices started to collapse over 40 billion dollars’ worth of stock value suddenly disappeared, and so did people’s money. With this caused the famous stock market crash in 1929. Almost immediately big businessmen started shutting down factories and firing employees and the demand for products went down, and with that, unemployment reached 15 million. In the lecture, Professor Newman uses the example of steel to show how much stocks declined. Steel stocks went for 260 dollars to 20 dollars during this short time. In a matter of two years,…show more content…
He believed in the New Deal to “try and see” and with that came the many programs mentioned throughout. He also believed in saving private property and to get rid of starvation and maintain individual welfare. He wants the depression to never happen again and with that he becomes a favorite amongst many. One of his most unique ideas was the Banking holiday in which the banks shut down for four days so people could no longer take money and the government could have time to come up with a solution. In 1933, they come up with the Emergency Banking Act. This program involves sending people out to banks to either save them or shut them down. That way the government could help out banks they felt could succeed and not do any unnecessary spending. This type of regulation was needed in order for change, and with these new programs and regulation Roosevelt succeeded in keeping America alive. He was a great and smart President during the Great Depression
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