Preview

How Did The Great Depression Affect The Economy

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1266 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Did The Great Depression Affect The Economy
The Economics of the Great Depression The longest depression in the Western civilized world is known as the Great Depression. The stock market crash of 1929 marked the beginning of the 10 year battle to regain economic stability in the United States. After the crash in October, millions of investors were uprooted. Consumer confidence continued to decrease, so spending and investment dropped. This brought on rising unemployment and failing industrial output. The revival of the U.S. economy was started by President Roosevelt. However, the road to normalcy was long and hard, and would not be achieved until after 1939 (The Great Depression, n.d.).
The Statistics The Great Depression was an economic struggle that is hard to imagine unless lived through. The statistics during the time offer more insight as to just how bad conditions were. It began in 1929, and by 1933, the United States’ gross national product was less than half than the level it was at in the beginning. The construction of industrial plants fell by 90%, automobile production fell by more than 60%, and steel plants were operating at only 12% of their
…show more content…
This boom was not just confined to the United States either; it was happening worldwide. However, problems in communication caused investment to drop dramatically. On Friday, there was a bit of recovery, and shares hit 6 million followed by a session on Saturday that made all the numbers climb back to those on Thursday. On Tuesday, October 29, also known as Black Tuesday, the stock market crashed. 16,410,030 shares on top of people dumping their securities put downward pressure on the market. The Dow Jones opened at $299 and closed at $230, and all of the investors, along with everyone else knew that there was no quick turnaround, and the economy was in for tons of hurt (University of Notre Dame,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    The Great Depression had many causes that built up to make it as big as it was. During World War I the U.S. had loaned supplies and money to their European Allies; not having these supplies or money caused the countries to go into debt making the depression go worldwide. The U.S. had a weak economy. There was an inability of the political and financial institutions to cope with the downward spiral that had started in the late twenties. Even after political intervention fifteen percent of the work force were unemployed. The biggest cause of the Great Depression was the 1929 Stock Market Crash. On October 29, 1929 stock market prices dropped dramatically and continued to drop for the next three years. “Stock prices in the United States continued to fall, until by late 1932 they had dropped to 20% of there value in 1929”(Britanica 1).…

    • 2193 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Great Depression DBQ

    • 844 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Beginning with the Wall Street stock market crash of October 24, 1929, the Great Depression was a time in United States history that continued for a much longer period than panics the country had experienced before. Although the unemployment rate vacillated for the following decade, it was highest in the recession of 1937. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the man the people of the United States called upon in order to pick up the copious economic and social problems left behind by Herbert Hoover. Roosevelt had both effective and defeasible responses to these problems that in turn, altered the government greatly.…

    • 844 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    DBQ Fdr's New Deal

    • 874 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Great Depression was the worst economic depression the US had ever faced in history. Set in motion after the crash of the stock market in 1929, the Depression led to the dramatic rise in unemployment rates, the vast migration of people, especially farmers, looking for jobs, food shortages, and an increasing hatred towards Hoover’s advocacy for laissez-faire and polices for reform. The years from 1929-1932 reflected a dark era in which Americans were afraid and unsure of what was to come next. With the nomination of Franklin D. Roosevelt as president, a feeling of hope emerged with the thought that this problem could be solved. With FDR’s New Deal, the nation was able to revitalize itself to the way it once was. Although WW II ultimately…

    • 874 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the 1930s, the United States went through the most tragic and terrifying economic downfalls in history known as the Great Depression, which lasted from 1929 to 1939. Americas 31st president, Herbert Hoover, allowed the country to fall into a complete state of depression with his very little concern of the major economic problems occurring at the time. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who took over as president after Hoover, was ready for action and attempted to bring America's citizens and economy out of the tragedy through many different social welfare programs known as the New Deal which was enacted from 1933 to 1938 in order to bring America out of the Great Depression. The Great Depression was a well-known major, devastating, financial…

    • 441 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The years of the Depression were disastrous. The crisis seems to deepen as the years went by. The unemployment rate peaked at 25% in the year of 1932. With no end in sight, the Americans people looked to their government to protect them against starvation, hopelessness, and perpetual poverty.…

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great Depression is regarded as the greatest and extensive 20th-century economic recession. It originated from the 1929 crash of the United States of America stock market crash, and it did not absolutely end until 1946 after World War II. Economists often allude to the Great Depression as being the most serious economic occurrence of the 20th century. The Great Depression was a time that was characterized by record decline in economic activity (Clements 45). The Great Depression plunged the U.S. people into an economic crisis that has never been endured in before or since that time. The worst as well as longest recession in the economic history made a lot of people to lose millions of diligent people into poverty as a result of joblessness.…

    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Ryan Fiala Dr. Diaz Hist 2310 21 April, 2016 Labor Issues During the Great Depression The Great Depression was the deepest and longest economic downturn in the history of the west. The Great Depression began shortly after the stock market crash during 1929, the end of the Roaring Twenties.…

    • 1022 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The entirety of the whole incident rests upon the one major event; the stock market crash. Many factors led up to this crash, and in the long run it all came down to the fact that the banking system…

    • 914 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The price of stock had dropping consistently throughout September, until October when some brokers decided to withdraw their shares. On “Black Thursday” about 13 million shares were sold. Then later on “Black Tuesday”…

    • 844 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Great Depression Dbq

    • 1432 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Great Depression was the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the world. After the stock market crash of 1929, the American economy plummeted. This was devastating for many families. Thousands of people were out of their jobs, and left to starve on the streets. Many were forced to simplify their wardrobes, problems in the education systems arose, and the banking system was destroyed. People turned to the government to help them out of their problems. Hoover and FDR worked to pass relief acts that would boost the American economy.…

    • 1432 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Impact on Great Depression

    • 1143 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Subsequently after the roaring twenties, a period of economic boom, the United States entered an era of darkness. It was as if the US was a wet sponge, and someone wrung the water out of the sponge, leaving it dry, and defeated. This era of hardships and economic troubles was called the Great Depression. President Herbert Hoover, main president for the duration of the Great Depression did little to no use in calming this political epidemic. Americans were lost and hopeless until President Franklin Delano Roosevelt stepped onto plate and started turning the tide. During Roosevelt’s term, he installed several economic organizations that were detrimental to pulling the US out of the Great Depression. Using Roosevelt’s program, The New Deal, he created groups that helped a specific subject. Some of the associations that Roosevelt created are still in use today, and still impacts the nation vastly. The whole nation was in economic depression, but the main group that suffered the utmost was farmers. Thankfully, the government responded to their situation, and pulled farmers from their debt and grievances..…

    • 1143 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Great Depression of the 1930’s was the worst economic period in the history of the United States. Taking over the presidency in 1932, three years after the Depression began, Franklin Delano Roosevelt became responsible for leading America’s quest to escape the Depression. Roosevelt passed the New Deal in an attempt to help the nation recover through a series of initiatives focused on economic recovery. While most people would agree that the New Deal had a definite impact on the United States throughout the early-1930’s, there are some critics that think that the New Deal prolonged the Great Depression. These critics believe that different initiatives could have returned the United States to prosperity much sooner, and that the Depression would’ve continued much longer if not for the start of World War II.…

    • 1990 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Herbert Hoover

    • 353 Words
    • 2 Pages

    * On October 24, 1929 on “Black Tuesday” the New York stock exchange experiences a collapse in stock prices as 13 million shares are sold.…

    • 353 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Great Depression was the toughest and the longest economic recession in the industrialized world, in most of the countries it started in 1929 and lasted till 1939. The Great Depression was the result of many causes; some of these causes are the crash of the stock market, and banks were not able to lend money because huge numbers of people were withdrawing their money. This withdrawal also caused the banks to fail. Another reason is that people were afraid of buying products and services after the stock market crash which lead to a huge decrease in the demand of products and services, this decrease in demands and the unwillingness to spend money made the level of unemployment increase sharply.…

    • 120 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Economic depression cannot be cured by legislative action or executive pronouncement. Economic wounds must be healed by the action of the cells of the economic body – the producers and consumers themselves” – Herbert Hoover. The Great Depression was Americas most difficult years and times in American history, with the stock market crash, unemployment, and the dust bowl almost destroying America forever. People not buying things and taking all of their money out of the banks and selling all of their shares in the stock market caused America to fall into the biggest resection in history that affected the whole world. (History )…

    • 867 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays