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Essay about The Great Depression in America

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     Imagine losing all of the money you've ever earned in a few years. This may seem quite far fetched, but the Crash of 1929 made this a reality. The crash of 1929 established the beginning of America's most memorible era; the great depression. According to the London Penny Press, following the week of Black Thursday, one could go to New York and see speculators hurling themselves from windows because they had lost everything in the crash. (The Great Crash 1929-Galbraith) Many people had everything they could ever dream of before the crash occured, but after the crash they found themselves poor, hungry, unemployed, and devastated. ErmDux14: Of course during hard times people need someone or something to …show more content…

Many held onto their stocks until they reached a high enough point, then selling them at a much higher price that they had bought them, making a hefty profit. This worked well for a long time, but soon enough skeptical people would lose confidence in the market and would begin to sell their stocks. This ruined the idea that stocks were increasing in value. People no longer held onto their stocks in hopes to make a profit. Instead they would want to sell. Eventually everyone wanted to sell and prices fell drastically. (The Great Crash 1929-Galbraith) This is the way the market crashed in 1929. In years leading up to 1929 when speculation was high and stocks were being purchased, they were bought on a ten percent margin. This meant that investors were putting up only ten percent of the actual price of a stock. The remaining ninety percent was borrowed from banks or brokers. Many thought that they would be able to repay loans and gain profit when they sold their stocks later on. This led to eight billion dollars of stock loans which president Hoover had to liquidate.(The memoirs of Hebert Hoover) ErmDux14: In September of 1929 the market was very unpredictable, some days doing well other days it fell a little. Many started to notice a downward trend. The industrial part of the country started to slump and the market began to

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