What Caused The Great Depression

The Great Depression is considered to be the most severe economic collapse in the history of the world. The Great Depression occurred in October 1929 and lasted until 1939. In October 1929, Wall Street’s investors were wiped out, which caused consumer spending and investment to decline. The next effect to the crash on Wall Street was the decline in industrial output and employment as failing companies laid off workers. The Great Depression reached its lowest when there were about 15 million Americans unemployed and the failure of most of the banks in the country. There are thought to be many causes to the great depression one being the peak of the stock market in August 1929. The New York Stock Exchange located on Wall Street was a very popular place in the 1920s, and there were various types of people there. At the Stock Exchange, there would be CEO millionaires to those who barely made minimum wage investing their life earnings into stocks. By the peak of the Stock Exchange, there was already mass unemployment and a decrease in production. Due to these circumstances, stock prices were much higher than they were valued. There was also the fact that the agricultural economy was struggling due to a drought, and the price on food
Then on October 29, 1929 or also referred to as “Black Tuesday” about 16 more million shares were traded, this made millions of shares worthless. After this crash of the stock market, factories slowed production and fired most of their workers. Those workers who kept their jobs and continued to work had very small wages. Most people in America were forced to start credit accounts making them go into debt making foreclosures and repossessions very popular during this time. The United States was not the only country to have this problem, many parts across the world felt The Great Depression, especially