The Federal Reserves' Role During the Great Depression

The Gold Standard was the framework by which the value of cash was characterized in terms of gold, for which the money could be traded. The Gold Standard ended up being deserted in the Depression of the 1930s. Friedman felt that,“The gold standard is not feasible because the mythology and beliefs required to make it effective do not exist. This conclusion is supported not only by the general historical evidence referred to but also by the specific experience of the United States” ( “The Gold Standard:Please Stop”).Economists who contradict the Gold Standard may perceive what must be accomplished with a specific end goal to make a centrally controlled paper standard better than a decentralized Gold Standard. Milton Friedman poses the key question: "How can we establish a monetary system that is stable, free from irresponsible tinkering, and

The Dust Bowl: Men, Dirt, and Depression reveals the economical battle throughout the Great Depression, as well as the dust bowl. Real people struggled to subsist the times of poverty and extensive horticultural difficulties. Bonnifield states that agricultural hardship during the dust bowl expedited due to several dry years. Farmers started a new method of farming known as dry land farming which led to the major destruction of the Great Plains' prairie grass. 6Ranchers also played a big part in the dust bowl because of overgrazing. Eventually, the land was stripped down to dirt.7

The rural depression was a primary component in the Great Depression, as bank advances turned sour, credit became scarce, and banks across the nation shut down. All through the 1930s, more than a million acres of land were influenced in the Dust Bowl, a large number of agriculturists lost their jobs and property, and mass relocation patterns started to arise as ranchers left rustic America looking for work in urban areas. This relocation, or migration, added to Great Depression unemployment hardships, stressed alleviation and advantages programs, and made in many vast American urban areas (The Great Depression Causes).

The timeline of the dustbowl characterizes the fall of agriculture during the late 1920s, primarily the area in and surrounding the Great Plains. The Dust Bowl was created by a disruption in the areas natural balance. “With the crops and native vegetation gone, there was nothing to hold the topsoil to the ground” (“Dust Bowl and” 30). Agricultural expansion and dry farming techniques caused mass plowing and allowed little of the land to go fallow. With so little of the deeply rooted grass remaining in the Great Plains, all it took was an extended dry season to make the land grow dry and brittle. When most of the land had been enveloped by the grass dust storms weren’t even a yearly occurrence, but with the exponentiation of exposed land, the winds had the potential to erode entire acres. This manmade natural disaster consumed such a large amount of the South's agriculture that it had repercussions on the national level. The Dust Bowl was a “97-million-acre section

“Much of the Roaring '20s was a continual cycle of debt for the American farmer, stemming from falling farm prices and the need to purchase expensive machinery.” (“The Farming Problem”). Tractors had just graced the U.S. markets which boosted the production of goods greatly. Most would think this was good, but it was more of a problem, the farmers would overproduce goods without enough people to buy them all which made the goods almost worthless. The farmers had to borrow money to pay for their tractors, assuming they would be able to pay back the debt with the money that the tractor made, but when they found they could not it set them up having no money and a debt with no way to pay it back. “When the stock market crashed in 1929 sending prices in an even more downward cycle, many American farmers wondered if their hardscrabble lives would ever improve.” (“The Farming Problem”). The stock market crashing made the stocks the farmers though they would be able to get some money from virtually worthless.

Farmers planted and harvested crops without giving the land enough time to restore itself. The more farmers planted crops and sold produce, the lower prices fell (Press 38). Farmers used the skim milk from cows to feed their chickens and pigs. Thistles were harvested and fed to the animals when typical feed crops died. After thistles began to die, farmers would dig up soap weed and feed it to the livestock (Dunn trinity.edu). Crops, cattle, and other farm animals began to die and the income of farmers decreased greatly (Press 37). John A. Simpson, President of the National Farmer’s Union, said this about the income of a farmer. “For a farmer to buy a toothbrush he would have to sell eight dozen eggs and he then would owe two cents. A farmer must sell forty pounds of cotton to buy a good shirt” (Press 37-38). Many farmers relied on their cattle for much of their income, but cattle prices dropped so low that farmers began to only keep enough cattle to feed their families (Press 37). The amount of produce that farmers sold decreased rapidly. Five million acres of wheat were ruined after only a few weeks of dust storms (“Black Sunday: April 14, 1935 PBS.org). Farmers had to survive on only cornbread, beans and milk (“The Dust Bowl”

In November 1933, the worst drought in the history of the United States occurred across the Great Plains. The farming economy had already been hit hard by the depression and these storms created even more devastation. This large area of the plains became tagged with the name the “Dust Bowl”. Also known as “the dirty thirties” the dust bowl affected many farmers and their families in the Southwest/Midwest. The dust clouds caused by wind erosion, drought, and hardships led to a turning point not only in the agriculture effects of the world, but also the economic views.

Many events occurred before the years of the Dust Bowl began. The farmers plowed up all of the ground to grow “cash crops” (Marrin 58). The plowing of the soil left no grass to hold down the topsoil, leaving it vulnerable for wind erosion. In 1930, the people of the Great Plains had the biggest shortage of water in the history. “Seventeen million people were affected” (Worster 11). In the early 1930’s, the temperatures went higher than they ever had before (Marrin 52). By 1932, most people had reached their breaking point. Before the dust storms began, there was a cutworm plague, a grasshopper plague, and a rabbit plague (Reis 51 and 52). Between all of the natural problems occurring, the land and people were both exhausted. They had no idea

The economy was not the only thing drying up during the 1930s as a horrific drought took over the Great Plains at the same time. The drought turned the topsoil to loose dust that was carried away with the wind. The resulting dust storms were so large and destructive they made their way all the way to the East Coast. Many of the people in the Midwest were farmers who were left with no way of providing for themselves and without a place to live. This left many of them homeless and in need of government aid. The Dust Bowl was one of the worst disasters in United States history as it displaced millions of people, caused disease, and

This article is about the circumstances that led to the collapse of the economy in 1929. It relates to my research proposal because I am evaluating historic events that led to the financial crisis of 1929. The article discusses how deflation played an important role in expanding the depression, and how the Gold Standard, a monetary system in which a country’s government allows its currency unit to be freely converted into fixed amounts of gold and vice versa, was an extremely bad decision because it caused the dollar to lose its value. This source was informal because it discusses prehistoric events that led to the

During the First World War, our farmers worked very hard to help to produce wheat for an ever-increasing demand. Many new inventions such as the disk plow and the steam tractor helped with this endeavor. The land was stripped of its root system that held the soil in place. The topsoil was ground down into the very fine sand. “On the Great Plains, extensive plowing while ignoring environmental risks set the stage for the dust bowl of the 1930’s”(Eric Foner published 2017 - 5th edition). The many lessons learned from the dust bowl years would change the farmer’s agricultural world forever.

In the summer of August 7, 1931, farmers have been preparing for this year’s crops to be planted. Although there has been a severe drought occurring and the Great Depression not far behind, farmers continue to plow and plant, hoping for golden rows of wheat to sell. Little did they know that all of this over plowing and drought would lead to a disaster that will sweep through the southern plains for about eight harsh years. The dust bowl or the dirty thirties affected states such as Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, and Arkansas. The people that had lived there were not prepare for what was about to come. High winds caused dust to blow in clouds, creating huge storms that were unavoidable.

“ Federal aid to the drought-affected states was first given in 1932, but the first funds marked specifically for drought relief were not released until the fall of 1933. In all, assistance may have reached $1 billion (in 1930s dollars) by the end of the drought (Warrick et al., 1980). “ ( Economics of the Dust Bowl ), The funds were marked up and down constantly, this was creating a big change of the economic ways during the dust

In the 1930s, drought maintained its negative influence in all of the Plains for nearly 10 years. The drought’s primary characteristics of damage are regarded as agricultural for the most part. High temperatures, lack of rain, insect infestations, and heavy winds all in unison with the dust storms that accompanied these detrimental instances damaged countless crops. In addition to the Great Depression’s bank closures, various economic damages, increased unemployment, and other hardships, the agricultural depression just worsened the situation in America. It is also important to note that the lack of precipitation may have most likely affected the overall conditions of plant life and wildlife in a negative manner, as well as caused potential shortages of water for various conventional purposes. Although this almost always goes unnoticed by most readers, it is extremely important to acknowledge such regressions as they appropriately contribute to the overall negative and destructive connotation of the Dust Bowl in its respective era.

Eight decades has elapsed since the outbreak of the Great Depression, but the continuing mystery of its cause keep provoking academic debates among scholars from various fields. Eichengreen and Temin joint the debates by linking the gold-standard ideology with the cause of the Great Depression. They content that because of this ideology monetary and fiscal authorities implemented deflationary policies when the hindsight shows clearly that expansionary policies were needed. And these contractionary policies consequently pushed the stumbling world economy into the Great Depression. Eichengreen and Temin put heavy weight on analyzing why the prewar gold standard could be a force for international financial stability while interwar gold