Great Depression Dbq

Imagine this. You wake up one morning in the year 1929, in your luxurious, pricey mansion. You then make your way downstairs to eat that nice big breakfast. Then you kiss your family good bye and head off to your fancy job. You come home that evening and suddenly you’re flat broke. Meaning all your money and life’s savings vanished. Unreal right? Well it was real for hundreds of families on October 29, 1929. The day the stock market crashed and when America’s confidence was challenged greatly.

The America in the 1930s was drastically different from the luxurious 1920s. The stock market had crashed to an all time low, unemployment was the highest the country had ever seen, and all American citizens were affected by it in some way or another. Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal was effective in addressing the issues of The Great Depression in the sense that it provided immediate relief to US citizens by lowering unemployment, increasing trust in the banks, getting Americans out of debt, and preventing future economic crisis from taking place through reform. Despite these efforts The New Deal failed to end the depression. In order for America to get out of this economic

Unlike Hoover, FDR was proactive, against rugged individualism and believed in a strong centralized government in order to get out of the deep depression. The programs that FDR initiated through the New Deal are still beneficial and in place to this day. The Social Security Act (SSA) provided checks that ensured the welfare of citizens. This program provided coverage to the disabled, children, adults, and more. Pension is also another aspect that the SSA provided and still provides to the elderly. The SSA provided recovery to many people during the Great Depression and it continues to be used in our society today. Unemployment benefits also originated from FDR’s New Deal and are still available to American citizens today. These forms of government securities benefit the American people and all owe their American benefits to FDR’s forward thinking attitude and his New Deal

The stock market crash, called Black Tuesday. Unequal distribution of wealth was a key factor during the time period as well. The day know as “Black Tuesday” was the day the stock market crashed. This led to the fall of stock prices, in fear, people sold their stocks and gathered the money they could. The people who didn’t, lost all of their stocks. Those who bought them on credit, they were now in debt. Investors lost a collective amount equal to the amount spent in WWI, that’s billions of dollars gone, approximately thirty-two billion dollars (32,000,000,000). As bad as the crash was, unequal distribution of wealth did not help. The rich saw an income increase of 70%, and the poor saw an increase of 9%. More than 70% of families earned less than $2500/year. Many of these families couldn't afford household products, such as the flood of overproduced goods. Only one out of ten families owned an electric refrigerator. One thing many people overlook when on the subject of the Great Depression is the president's influence on the situation. The two presidents during this time were Herbet Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Hoover was in office during the collapse of the economy, he didn’t believe in national relief, he believed in self-prevalence and self-help. His beliefs didn’t get the confidence of the people, in 1933, a fourth of working American’s were out of a job, that’s more than fifteen million people unemployed. Many people disliked Hoover, so when they needed to make a home out of paper, glass, tin, or whatever they could find, they named the towns constructed from these items “Hoovervilles”. They were found mostly on the outside of cities. Hoover's idea of self-reliance didn’t get him reelected, he lost to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. Roosevelt brought forward a new strategy to take on the economic problems, it was called the New Deal. The New Deal was a series of actions him and his

The Great Depression 1929-1942 was the economic downturn. On October 29, 1929 the stock market crashed wiping out millions out of work. The economic slowed down and then it shrinked in size. It then progressed to a recession and then to a panic. This progressed over the years and a series of bad decisions to slow down the economy into depression. Which then led to WWII.

“At one point in the Depression, the cupboard was literally bearing of money.” What effect did the Great Depression have on the people who lived through it? The jobs they had, how they had to use their money, and the help they had to get.

The Great Depression time period took place between the years 1929 and 1939 and it affected millions of Americans through all its time. Several people like Herbert Hoover, Franklin Roosevelt, and Dorothea Lange served an impact during this time. The stock crash of this time period left a decade of consequences for the lives of many Americans. The economic plumet of the 1930’s can also be related to our economic standings today.

Roosevelt. This World War One navy veteran saw the troubles that the United States was going through, (document 5) and promised a ‘New Deal’. During his run in office, he had three goals: Relief for the unemployed, repair the economy, and reforms to prevent another depression (the three R’s). The first thing Roosevelt did was fix the banking system. He knew that without stable banks, money would not be able to start flowing in the economy anymore. He ordered and ‘Bank Holiday’ and went through to all the banks making sure they were financially stable, and shut down the ones that were not. The nation soon had faith in Roosevelt and quickly saw brighter days ahead. Roosevelt provided relief for the unemployed through the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the Works Progress Administration. Both hired unemployed civilians to work building parks, playgrounds, hospitals, schools, etc. Roosevelt also provided recovery to the industry and farmers. He passed acts such as the National Industrial Recovery Act, and the Agricultural Adjustment Act. He paid farmers to start planting a variety of crop instead of competing in prices for the same product. He also provided long-term reforms and has so far prevented another depression through acts such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Social Security

The United States had just gained victory from World War I and was thriving. The period known as the roaring 20s was a time of success and materialism. Consumers were buying more and more products and spending money on credit. People were frivolously spending money and buying stock in the stock market. Although things may have appeared to be a time of success and prosperity, a storm was brewing and there were underlying weaknesses in the economy.

After a series of stock market crashes, the United States’ economy descended into a period of contraction. For more than ten years, the United States suffered through this state of economic despair also referred to as the Great Depression. President Herbert Hoover was in office at the time and found himself amongst the greatest era of economic declination. His response was to devise countermeasures to the depression that he felt would be most beneficial to the country. He began by requesting of large corporation heads to resist cutting employees’ wages and positions and instead reduce the margins of profit they accrued. He also pumped money into public works projects such as the construction of highways and government institutions. In addition

There are many beliefs and reasons why the Great Depression happened and when did it occur. Overall the strongest belief of what caused the Great Depression was the crash of the stock market. Along with the the crash of the stock market other reasons of why the Great Depression happened were suggested to do overproduction, buying installments, and purchasing stocks.

There were many actions taken to try and solve The Depression. Some of the problems were the stock market crash of 1929, unemployment rising, hunger spreading across the country, and bank failures. Some of these problems did have solutions though. For example, one of the attempts to solve the problem of unemployment was creating the Works Progress Administration (WPA) of 1935. The WPA set out to create as many jobs as possible so people could get back to work and provide for their families.

In the summer of 1929 the American economy started a downward spiral into what would later be known as the Great Depression. Consumers ceased to purchase unnecessary items and unsold products began to stockpile in manufacturer’s warehouses. 6This slowed manufacturing and production. 5Although the companies did not have an increase in value, their stock prices continued to rise. 3Finally, in October of that same year, the stock market crashed. Investors panicked and suddenly flooded the market with their shares. Black Thursday and Black Tuesday, the two most notable days of stock sales, are known for when approximately 29 million shares were sold.

The Great Depression devastated an economy that was fighting to make its way back to the top, after a war that crippled the economy. The economy was booming, the jazz age started, and women became more liberated then ever. Americans were busy buying cars, appliances, and putting their money into the stock market. This was done with credit, businesses were booming, they made huge gains from 65 percent from the mechanization of manufacturing, the average worker’s wages had only increased 8 percent (PBS, 1). People during this time were not aware of the irreparable consequences of making purchases with their credit. People were satisfied with this new materialistic way of life, they had no other care besides owning the newest and greatest inventions of the era. The stock market crashed on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929. The imbalance or the rich and the poor, the production of more and more goods, and the rising amount of debt was not sustainable triggering the crash of the stock market. The Great Depression happened world wide, many countries became depressed such as Brazil, Germany, and South East Asia (Smiley, 1). Economist believe the depression is not yet understood fully, and many have offered theories for the cause of the depression and the very slow recovery. Many theories have been made but the prominent theory that mentions the cause is frictions in labor and capital markets

The Wall Street crash of 1929 was one of the most unexpected and devastating financial collapses in the history of the world. On October 28th, known as “Black Monday”, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped a record high 38 points, or 13%, in one day. The next day, known as “Black Tuesday”, the market continued its decline as it dropped another 30 points, or 12%. A total of 16.4 million stocks were also traded on the Black Tuesday, which was a record that was not broken for almost 40 years. Many people consider this crash to be a leading cause of the great depression, but it was really just an extreme example of a normal economic cycle. The crash accelerated the depression while the real problem was a result of a few major economical mistakes made by the people, banks, and other outside sources before the crash occurred. The first mistake was that inexperienced investors poured tons of borrowed money into the market, due to speculations that the market would continue its consistent success and growth. The idea of “buy now, pay later”, also known as credit, influence consumers to take out loans in order to purchase goods that weren’t necessarily a smart economically plan. Lastly, the failure of banks destroyed the economy and was ultimately the nail in the coffin. Although the crash had an influence on great depressions start, it was not the leading cause. The great depression was bound to happen due to the countries irresponsibility, not the Wall Street crash of 1929.