Perhaps the worst economic downturn in the history of the United States occurred from 1930-1939. The Great Depression led to domestic and international crises effecting the poor and wealthy alike. Many financial experts today continue to debate the cause of The Depression, although most agree that several events led to the economic decline. The famous stock market crash on October 29, 1929 is just one of many causes economists believe led to The Great Depression. Known also as Black Tuesday, October 29th left stockholders shattered with recorded losses reaching $40 billion dollars (Kelly, n.d.).
The Causes of the Great Depression The Great Depression was an economic downfall that to this day is the worst economic downfall in U.S history. The depression started in the United States. People all over the world were affected by it, especially in Europe, Germany, Great Britain and other industrialized areas of the world. Mainly because America was a big creditor to those countries after World War I. The Great Depression lasted in America for at least ten years, but it took twenty-seven years to get the economy back above depression levels.
Many may argue that the falling economy and the wealthy not wanting to share their shares is to blame for the raising rates of poverty here in the states. Poverty of course, has a lot to do with money and income but underneath that it is has a deeper story. Stories of how different people are suffering from it and how they are managing to live day by day. It almost seems as if it’s a foreign nation of its own and you only understand the concepts if you are in it. There is no doubt that here in America we are dealing with one of the greatest economic downfalls.
The middle class was nearly non-existent. This occurs often in the world, but the Great Depression was the worst economic downfall in the history of the U.S. It spread and affected all of the industrialized world. The depression began with Black Tuesday, and lasted for nearly a decade. According to Paul Alexander Gusmorino, the main cause of the drastic downfall was the combination of unequal distribution of wealth and the extensive stock market speculation that took place in the later years of that decade.
The Nazi’s were not in a position to manage an electoral support. Then at the perfect time for the Nazi’s, the Wall Street Crash came in 1929. This compounded existing weaknesses in the economy. The loans and investments dried up and this was quickly followed by demands for the repayment of those short-term loans. The crisis also caused a decline in exports and productions as the demand for exports collapsed and the world trade slumped for Germany.
In Germany America’s economic failure contributed to the rise of Adolf Hiltler, so the Stock Market Crash had a domino effect on our country and others. In America there were 16 million unemployed, which was about one third of the available labor force (Livingston1). There was some companies that faired well through-out this gloom; Camel Cigarettes was the top selling tobacco product. The reasoning for that is people were stressed out and felt that cigarettes relived
For many life improved and there were jobs available in many new industries, like car manufacturing, electric goods etc. These factories were much more modern then old Victorian factories and the conditions were improving too. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 triggered a deep and lasting decline in the world economy. The British economy was badly affected by the Great depression as there was already high unemployment and stagnation in traditional staple industries such as ship building and textiles. However, with there being such regional differences between the north and south in Britain, the social and economic impact of the Great Depression on Britain as a whole was extremely uneven.
History HL Research Essay Discuss and evaluate the effects of the Great Depression on France The Great Depression is a name for a worldwide economic depression lasting from 1929 to the late 1930s or 1940s, depending on individual countries. Depression in economical terms is defined as ‘a severe downturn in economic activity. These are considerably worse than recessions.’. It is thought that it started with the crash of the stock market in USA on ‘Black Tuesday’ 29th October 1929, but some economics and historians debate whether this is a start or just a symptom of the Great Depression. Other major causes and symptoms of such a severe economic crisis were the quantities of gold stockpiled by particular countries, large number of banks failing during the 1930s, the reduction in money spent by people and huge international trade barriers placed by governments.
Prior to this revolution of machine, progress was slow. This made travel difficult and even dangerous to travel on poorly made roads. However with the industrial boom, it provided safer and shorter travel times, people began leaving rural area and journeyed to the city for opportunities and prosperity. Then October 29, 1929 happened and the stock market crashed, known as “Black Tuesday,” or “Black Thursday”. It devastated not only in the U.S economy and but worldwide.
This caused a ‘Recessionary gap’ where a fall in aggregate demand took an economy from above its potential output to below its potential output. From post-World War2 Keynesians Economics became widely accepted where it became the standard economic model for USA between the 1940s-1970s and was seen to be globally effective. However, the 1970s saw the demise of the Keynesian model where we saw wide spread inflation and oil prices started to rise. The idea of the Phillips curve relationship then seemed to break down as a result. It broke down due to the relationship work beyond the short run.