Arguements Over the Causes of the Great Depression

In 1929, the United States economy appears to be good and strong, at the moment; all Americans have some extra money or credit to buy some extra goods. The good economy was reflected in the Stock market, profits were big, more and more people invested in Stocks. In addition, farmers produced more wheat, cotton, corn, etc. and industries produced more goods that the needed to supply the country (over production), farmers’ and industries owners’ ambition make them produce more and more crops and goods. Americans using credit to buy goods they can’t pay, everyone investing all its savings on the stock market, overproduction on farm and industry area, plus America's new way of think, and other economic factors, make the economy of the country less strong, produce more unemployment and as result pushing the country into the Great Depression.

Instead, most money was in the hands of a few families and businesses who saved or invested rather than spent their money on American goods. Supply became greater than demand on products. Certain people profited, but many others did not. As a result of this, prices went up and Americans could not spare the money for many goods. While the wealth in America was not being distributed evenly, and overspeculation of the stock market led to a lack of confidence, the United States began to fall into a deep depression that would last until the beginning of World War II (Gupta).

Reed’s book, Great Myths of the Great Depression, attempts to argue that the stock market crash of 1929 was merely a normal economic occurrence. Instead, it was government policies enacted in response that exacerbated and prolonged the economic effects of the crash. In effect, Reed’s thesis flips the conventional view on its head: instead of being the cause, free-market capitalism would have naturally solved the issues that led to the Great Depression. Conversely, government intervention was a cause of, rather than a solution to, the economic hardships that resulted.

In conclusion, the Great Depression was a downside of America’s history. But, in the dark times, one of our nation’s best presidents came into light. Franklin D. Roosevelt once said “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. This meant in those times that Americans were doing more harm than good. When they withdrew their stocks and money from the banks, they were causing more damage to the economy. With shutting down the banks and getting congress together, they were able to solve the dilemmas of the Great Depression through actions taken by federal and state

This paper will present a brief summary and discussion of the causes of the Great Depression based on Frank Stricker 's paper, "Causes of the Great Depression: or What Reagan doesn 't know about the 1920s." Stricker presents an argument as to what he believes to be the root causes of the Great Depression as they relate to the decade preceding the stock market crash of 1929. This review is intended for undergraduate and graduate students of U.S. American History. Stricker present 's several essential points in his paper. The capitalist form of economy, by its nature, has an insatiable appetite for ever-increasing profits. During the 1920 's profits were high, yet income distribution was unequal (95). The only real benefactors were

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution early in the nineteenth century the United States ad experienced recessions or panics at least every twenty years. But none was as severe or lasted as long as the Great Depression. Only as the economy shifted toward a war mobilization in the late 1930s did the grip of the depression finally ease.

Uneven distribution of wealth serves as another cause of the Great Depression. America was wealthy in the 1920s, but this wealth did not extend to all segment of the society. The gains made by wealthy Americans in the 1920s far outstripped gained made by the working class. By the time of the stock market crash, the upper one percent of the population controlled over sixty percent of the nation’s savings. On the other hand, over three quarters of American families made less than $3000 a year. Problems that could develop from this situation were obvious. The bottom-line three-quarters of families were too poor to purchase much to help the economics to flourish. Underconsumption, in the long run, was a vicious circle to the economy. People had no money to spend. The income of many firms dwindled. More people were laid off or cut hours and thus further cut their spending. The economics became stagnant.

On October 29, 1929, also known as Black Tuesday, the stock market collapsed, causing people to sit in awe as they watched their fortunes disappear. The stock market crash was only one of the factors that jumpstarted the Great Depression. Banks failed to operate as a result of withdrawal of money from countless amounts of people. Although there was the decline of housing and automobile production in this era, factories encountered the problem of overproduction. The supply didn't not meet the demand of the consumer so companies faced bankruptcy and workers were laid off. 13 million people were jobless and the unemployment rate ascended to 25% during the Great Depression. With no income, people were not able to provide for their families, which

Many people think that the Great Depression was caused solely by the stock market crash. Anybody who tells you this probably didn’t pass U.S. History in high school. The fact is, the Great Depression was caused many different factors. Four of which were overproduction, uneven distribution of wealth, protective tariffs, and the four “sick industries” of the 1920’s.

The great Depression was a significantly dark economic period in American history that was marked by the stock market crash, which occurred in 1929. The subsequent years that followed this period were anxiety filled and were accompanied by record high levels of unemployment and a number of failing banks. Much has been documented about the effects of the Great Depression but not much has been documented about the general perspective of those who were directly affected by the Depression. An exploratory look is going to examine the perspectives of the American people during the great depression, the way in which new legislation allowed President Roosevelt to use the government to meet people’s needs and subsequently how President Roosevelt was critiqued.

Even though it relied upon a multitude of industries to support it, such as glass, rubber, and oil, these industries also relied on the automobile’s success. The American government had relied almost solely on the automotive industry, while any industries that could have recovered the economy were not fully developed. The pillars of American industry were stacked on top of one another, rather than supporting the expanding economic base. The stock market crash simply was what pushed the tower down, bringing the entire world economy with it. However, a factor that made the Depression much worse, was the misguided attempt by the Federal Reserve to improve the American economy in 1931. By raising interest rates on the dollar, the Depression was ironically made worse. Though it may have been possible to salvage the economy if the government performed the reverse, the U.S., at that time, was the most powerful nation in the first postwar world economy. What may seem glaringly obvious, was only being first experienced by the economists of the late 1920’s. Franklin Roosevelt himself falsely predicted continued growth, only months before one of the greatest, unexpected economic failures in

The Great depression was an economic depression in the United States during the presidency of Herbert Hoover which caused the loss on money. The American citizens suffered many consequences for this problem, like the loss of jobs, homes, food, and the Great Recession.

There are many periods that I would like to learn about because all have a very interesting history behind them. The Great Depression however is the period in which I would like to live in because although it was not the greatest period in history we have learned from it. We all know that the Great Depression had many factors that caused the economy to be unstable.It is great that the companies where able to produce more in quantity of their goods but that was not as good when they did not raise the market as well. Having the experience to see how many families had to live through hardship in order to survive with many losing their homes must have been very hard for them.Therefore, it is something that I would have liked to be part of but

Causes of the Great Depression The greatest financial crisis to have occurred in history was not caused by just one event, but rather by multiple events, though some contributed to the crisis more than others. The first cause of the Great Depression was the maldistribution of wealth that occurred among the population. The second most important cause of the Great Depression was the instability of the structures of both the credit and debt markets. The last main cause of the Great Depression was the shrinking demand for American produced goods from European nations.

I agree with the causes of the Great Depression being the stock market crash, bank failures, the drought, and European economic issues. During this week’s lesson I learned how each economy could affect another economy. I found this really interesting because I never realized how we not only invest in our country but we invest in other countries also. For an example during the 1920s the United States, “spent a tremendous amount of money investing in the rebuilding of postwar Europe when the economy started to falter, the United States suspended its international investments, which weakened economies of nations throughout the world”(Barnes & Bowles, 2014). This shows how our weak economy negatively affected the world’s economy.