Examples Of 1929: Alternating Periods Of Economic Growth And Contraction

The United States during the 1920’s were some of the best and fun years there were. Everybody always went to parties, invested in stocks, made money, and spent it as quickly as they got it. In 1929, the stock market crashed which ultimately turned the roaring twenties into the Great Depression. The effects of the Great Depression was a rocket high in the number of unemployment. People went from riches to rags, and started losing trust in banks which destroyed the economy and pushed the business cycle into a new phase worse than anybody had ever seen or experienced. The “business cycle” was a template for how most economists and politicians explained the economy and gave it reasoning.

A political business cycle is the concept that politicians are more interested in reelection than in stabilizing the economy. Before the election, they enact tax cuts and spending increases to please voters even though this may fuel inflation. After the election, they apply the brakes to restrain inflation; the economy will slow and unemployment will rise. In this view the political process creates economic instability.

In the 1929 and 1940 The Great Depression in history millions of people were out of work or they will soon to be out of one. It didn’t matter if you were Black , White HIspanic or Asian you will still would be unemployment even if you were really rich. Everything was crashing down there wasn’t jobs for people. Many banks failed then markets did as well.

Another important factor to consider when starting a business is the “business cycle.” The business cycle is the fluctuations in economic activity that an economy will experience over a period of time. We have experience may business cycles in the United States. We refer to them as expansions and recessions. In an expansions, the economic outlook is good and growth happens, without inflation. Recessions are when the economy is shrinking and the determination factors for a recession include unemployment, low industry production, decrease sales and lower incomes. Since 1854, The United States has experienced 33

The two economic environments that I would be describing about are recession and growth on the business activities of John Lewis. Growth occurs when more goods are being produced and consumed, and also incomes are rising. During growth people spend more money on goods and services as they have more money to spend and also businesses would invest more and hire more labour as it links to increasing demand. Recession however occurs when people involved in business become more cautious so they cut their spending down and also cut back on their orders as well as making workers unemployed or redundant.

It is often said (perhaps even to the point of exhaustion) that history is significant because if we are to reflect on historical events we must realize past mistakes and learn from them. The 1930s may have followed the 1920s but it could not have been more different and there are many explanations for this. The disastrous recession of the 1930s was caused by more than just one factor, and the less than sustainable ways of living in the 1920s are a testimony to why the economy crashed. Although some might consider the rise and fall of national prosperity in the 1920s and 30s to be an issue only pertaining to the past, there have been similar problems repeated since. By examining the contrast between these two decades, we as consumers can educate ourselves on the importance of a stable economy, and then make rational decisions about how we can contribute to the economy; like when we should be spending, saving, and investing. The bust of the economy in 1929 was an example of the failures of indulging in a purely capitalist society, which is often overlooked by modern economists analyzing the Great Depression.

All of these factors have an enormous impact on my selected business (Barclays) as the economy goes from growth and decline. As well as many others, Barclays is majorly affected as it is in the financial industry. These different factors appear throughout what is called the ‘Business Cycle’. The cycle shows the fluctuation of the activity within the economy over a period of time and consists of 4 main stages; as well as many others,

The period of Great Depression 1929-1939 was very crucial, worst economic recession period in the history of industrialized world. October 24, 1929 was a day verifiably known as "Black Thursday", the United States securities exchange slammed because of financial specialists in the market beginning to "auction their offers, which brought about a decrease in stock costs” (Richard H. Pells, 2006; Christina D. Romer, 2008). This economic recession led to different consequences that caused lots of problems. Many banks failed, unemployment rose, world trade collapsed and there were many other problems that Americans were facing during this period. (History.com Staff, 2009)

In the 1920s America was under severe restraints that has caused division in the country socially and culturally (Tindall et al, P.86). There was a time when law and order has no place in the American society, people were deprived from their basic rights and no transparency was provided by the state. The government of that time was reluctant to show any kind of progress that could help the people. Crime rate was increasing and people were no more secure in their houses. Feudal lords and Mafias were controlling the internal part of United States. People were forced to work as a forced labor in factories or highway projects and they were paid less amount of money that can be hardly cover their expenses. It has badly impacted the US economy many people were deprived of basic necessities. The inflation rate was

This only deteriorated as businesses would suffer financially and unemployment was at an all the time high. Although President Franklin D. Roosevelt came up with tactics and strategies to lessen the effects of the damage done, the economy wouldn’t fully overcome until after 1939 as World War II shifted America. For a little over a decade, businesses would go through financial turmoil and people would have to find other ways to bring in revenue. During the late summer of the 1929, the American economy entered into a recession. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a recession is defined as a period of reduced economic activity. Investors had traded some 16 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. That day in history was formally known as “Black Tuesday”. Those same shares had ended up being worthless with no monetary value. The investors who bought them with borrowed money, suffered an excessive lost. Consumer reliability was gone as spending was nonexistent which resulted in factories being closed down. The lack of consumerism also impacted those who had invested in mass production. The consumers who still felt a need to spend, were forced to use credit cards and evidently fell into major debt; foreclosures on homes and repossessions climbed rapidly as people tried their best to live again and have that

The Business Cycle is “…the "ups and downs" in economic activity, defined in terms of periods of expansion or recession” (Dr. Econ). Expansion is the period in which employment, production, sales and income increase. Likewise, the contrasting contraction is when the actions above decrease. In order to keep track of the fluctuations of the US’s business cycles troughs and peaks, the National Bureau of Economic Research was created. The NBER is comprised of a group of economic researchers currently led by president James Poterba. The members are usually specialized in the field of business-cycle research, and are chosen by the president. The NBER was founded in 1920 as a private non-profit “…non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, and business professionals.” (http://www.nber.org/info.html). The NBER dating committee was formed in 1978, and plays an important role in the US as an examiner of broad measures of economic activity, and the most reliable source of the beginning and end of recessions in the U.S. This is accomplished by gathering as much data on a given period of economic activity.

In American history, the Great Depression ranks second as the longest and most severe crisis ever experienced only dislodged from the first position by the Civil War. The Great Depression marked a period of economic downturn that resulted in severe declines in output, acute deflation, financial insecurity and severe unemployment rates. This was a sharp contrast from the early 1920’s when the country was experiencing a period of tremendous economic growth and prosperity. The Great Depression was brought about by a number of factors that included the declining consumer demand, a natural slowdown in the cycle of business, misguided government policies, panics within the financial markets and environmental disasters among others. Everyone felt the effects of the Great Depression on every part of the country, rural or urban. From the rich to the poor, the young to the old, white Americans to African Americans, no one was spared from the devastating effects of the depression. The experience of millions Americans suffering as a result of the Great Depression paint a clear picture on how serious the crisis was. Many Americans believed that it was the government’s role to alleviate them from the suffering and also offer relief aid to curb hunger and starvation. Letters sent to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Mrs. Roosevelt with photographs taken by photographers of the Farm Security Administration (FSA) show and tell the social experiences of many Americans during that period.

go through cycles of expansion, recession and recovery. Monetary and fiscal policies can affect the timing and length of these cycles. In the expansion phase, the economy grows, businesses add jobs and consumer spending increases. At some point, known as

Recession cycles are thought to be a normal part of living in a world of inexact balances between supply and demand. What turns a usually mild and short recession or "ordinary" business cycle into an actual depression is a subject of debate and concern. Scholars have not agreed on the exact causes and their relative importance. The search for causes is closely connected to the question of how to avoid a future depression, and so the political and policy viewpoints of scholars are mixed into the analysis of historic events eight decades ago. The even larger question is whether it was largely a failure on the part of free markets or largely a failure on the part of government efforts to regulate interest rates, curtail widespread bank failures, and control the money supply. Those who believe in a large role for the state in the economy believe it was mostly a failure of the free markets and those who believe in free markets believe it was mostly a failure of government that compounded the problem.

Timing of the business cycle is not predictable, but its phases seem to be. Many economists site four phases—prosperity, liquidation, depression, and recovery. During a period of prosperity, a rise in production leads to increases in employment, wages, and profits. Obstacles then begin to obstruct further expansion. Production costs can increase, helping create a rise in prices, and