Great Depression Dbq

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The U.S. stock market was doing exceptionally well during the early 20th century. Stock prices were high and Americans were making good money off of it. The stock market reached its all time high, when prices were beyond their actual value. As a result, the unemployment rate increased which lowered production for products. Eventually, because of that action, the stock prices began to fall, causing the stock market to plummet down, affecting everyone that had invested their money in stocks. Other factors that contributed to the depression were the large amounts of debts, low wages, over production of agriculture, the excessive amounts of money spent in the urban areas, and surplus of bank loans. There were a few Americans that hadn't lost all …show more content…

Of the programs he created, the ones that helped Americans was the decrease in taxes on imported goods, increase taxes on business, having a public works project, and convincing local governments to create jobs. This way it made the depression ease in the eyes of Americans. Because of the poor money handling and the effort to get the economy back up again, President Hoover lost in the re-election against President Franklin Roosevelt. Roosevelt promised Americans a “New Deal” when he took office, and during his first “Hundred Days” as president, he signed a number of groundbreaking new laws (Gilder Lehrman). He signed numerous laws that would support the Americans by utilizing their money carefully and effectively, in oppose to President Hoover, who failed to do so. He created new agencies like Works Progress Administration and National Recovery Administration that helped balance the economy to its former state.Despite resistance from business and other segments of the community to “socialistic” tendencies of the New Deal, many of its reforms gradually achieved national acceptance (“New Deal”). These new organizations provided the economy with a new handout that stricked the control of wages, hours, business communities, and created new jobs. New Deal bills supported direct federal aid, tightened government control over many industries, and eschewed volunteerism in favor of deficit spending, all in the hopes of jump starting both consumer confidence and the economy (Gilder Lehrman). Americans were satisfied with the New Deal as it continued to prosper and flourish America once

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