Discuss The Causes Of The Great Depression

There are multiple conditions that occurred in the US that aided in the economic downturn leading to the Great Depression. Prior to the stock market crash of 1929, a classical approach, advocated by Adam Smith, was how America felt its political and economic system functioned. Adam Smith’s classical approach is embedded in the concept of a laissez-faire economic market, which suggests that the US would thrive if left alone (lecture). This approach requires a noninterfering government and allows individuals to follow their own self-interest, which was supposed to keep economic order (Cochran & Malone). Additionally, as discussed in lecture, this theory assumes that markets are inherently stable, self-adjusting and self-regulating, and

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.

On October 29th, 1929 the stock market crashed and more than 10 billion dollars vanished within five hours. It is hard to imagine being in the 1920s and trying to withdraw your deposit from the bank and the bank in the not being able to give you your money back. So instead imagine this modern day scenario: you go to the grocery store and when you reach the check out you are try to use your credit cards and are unable to. Thinking this was a banking error you go to the bank and it is closed, completely abandoned, and now you have no way of paying for food, gas for your car, or any other necessity. There is no way of knowing if a national depression of the same magnitude of 1929 could or could not occur again economists are constantly debating

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 the worst downfall ever in American history, causing many people grief. “The Great Depression soon began after the stock market crash in October 1929” (The Great depression, 2009). On what is known as “Black Thursday” around 12.9 million shares were traded. Five days later, on “Black Tuesday” 16 million shares were traded, leaving the shares worthless. This led factories and other businesses to slow down production and start firing workers. By 1930, 4 million Americans looking for work could not find it, and that number rose to 6 million by 1931. By 1933 of the Great Depression, 13 to 15 million Americans were unemployed and nearly half of the country’s banks had failed.

The Great Depression encompassed many years of frustration and confusion.Not only have numerous historians delved into the causes without narrowing them down, but economists have, also. Notoriously, the stock market crash, in 1929, has taken the blame, or been the brunt of precipitating the depression. In fact, the stock market crash was only a contributing factor in the United States of America.

New Dealers argued that the Depression was a crisis of “under-consumption.” They contend that low wages and high prices due to the uneven distribution of wealth had made the idea of purchasing products in this industrial economy out of the question; and that a “lack of demand had led to the economic collapse (Glenco),” especially after the poor were hammered by the effects of the stock market crash. Furthermore, placing sole responsibility of the depression on the unbalanced distribution of wealth is unreliable in the sense that a domestic solution was unavoidable in the minds of New Dealers, whom acquired a predisposition to place limits on corporate leaders, which distracted them from recognizing the full effect of other obstacles during the Depression.

The first cause of the depression of 1929 was the uneven distribution of wealth in the US during the 1920s. The top 5% of the population controlled 54/4% of the wealth in the US. The middle class controlled 13.8% and the poorest in the nation controlled 12.5% of the wealth in the U.S. A second reason was the American businesses increased the prices for their products during the 1920s (monopolies) and this made prices so high that the middle class and poor had a hard time to afford to purchase the products produced in America. Agriculture problems was a third reason for the problems. Farm prices had been steadily decreasing since the end of the great war. Bad banking policies was a fourth reason for the depression. Bankers were handing out loans

Causes of the Great Depression By: Hamzah Abouseta The great depression during the 1930’s was a social and economic shock that left millions of people unemployed, hungry and often homeless, specifically in Canada and the United States. There are many reasons that have caused this tragedy such as the stock market crash, bank failures, and the reduction of purchasing across the board. The stock market crash was the main cause of the great depression in the 1930’s.

Imagine a society where over 25% of the population was unemployed. That is what it reached during The Great Depression (“The Great Depression”). During the depression unemployment rates were the highest they have ever been. It is highly speculated to this day on what exactly caused The Great Depression. Most historians agree it was a chain of events, one after another, that brought our country into chaos. Some events were more impactful than others. These events caused pandemonium among the public, which blew it even more out of proportion by trying to save themselves from bankruptcy. The three major events that caused The Great Depression were the Stock Market Crash of 1929, the bank crisis, and public overreaction.

Ultimately the cause of the Great Depression was World War I which created the Roaring Industrial Age. The combined forces of misused prosperity and an inability to fix it made the worst depression that the U.S.A. has ever seen. While the 1920's were full of wealth and prosperity the events of the era only served to raise the country before letting it crash, falling lower than it had ever been before. Only top of this, while effective leadership could have helped, ignorant leadership had poor policies and little experience which contributed to the Stock Market Crash of 1929 which started the Great Depression. No single occurrence could have caused such a tragedy, but combined World War I, misused prosperity,

While the United States was struggling to emerge from the Great Depression at the end of the 1930s, and would do so partly because of the World War I, Japan was also in a bad economic position. Several things contributed to this; The Great Kanto Earthquake that hit in 1923 had destroyed Tokyo and Yokohama and the areas that surrounded them. Also, the Great Depression, which occurred in the 1930s, worsened Japan's already poor economic state. Another facet of Japan's economy was its reliance on silk exports and during the Great Depression, the price of silk dropped dramatically.   One of the outcomes of Japan's poor economy was the militarization of the government.

The Great Depression is a period synonymous with excruciating poverty and darkness worldwide. It can be said that an undeniable impact was felt upon all of the world’s nations - although it can also be said that not all countries were affected negatively. At the time, the majority of the powers of the world were - for the most part - all very much entwined both politically and economically. Thus, the research from this point on will cover not only what caused the depression, but how it impacted each of the major powers of the Asia-Pacific, those being; the United States, China, Japan, and Russia (the former USSR). An in depth analysis of the Great Depression reveals that the United States suffered huge losses, while China, Japan, and the Soviet Union were relatively unaffected.

There are many contributing factors to how the Great Depression happened in 1930s. We believe that crop production and drought, along with the price of gold dropping, with the collapse of the stock, and with the issues of former President Hoover.

The Great Depression was an economic depression that occurred on the United States during the 1930’s and is generally regarded as the worst economic disaster to strike the U.S. in its history. It would lead to tens of thousands of jobs lost and thousands of deaths by starvation and to the elements. Suicide and vagrancy were common fates during the depression with the suicide rate increased from fourteen to seventeen per hundred thousand. Millions were left on the street after they couldn’t pay for their own homes, many squeezed in with relatives or squatted but thousands would take up shelter with any other homeless in massive camps called “Hoovervilles”. The most accepted date for the start of the depression would be late in the year 1929. Recovery would begin as early as 1933 but it would take until 1937 for major progress to be made. The main causes of this disaster were the overproduction of goods in factories with an underconsumption of those said goods in the marketplace. Along with risky bank practices dealing with loaning money and an over-reliance on the stock market to make that money back.