Causes Leading Up To The Great Depression

The Great Depression in the 1930s was a time of struggle and suffering and the impact it had on the world makes it perhaps the most memorable decade. Streets were lined with starving people begging for food and both men and women praying to find a job. Families struggled to get along with little or no income. The government watched in horror as their country fell apart, they scrambled to find a way to solve the economic fall. The Great Depression can best be described as finding a light in a dark tunnel; it is difficult but not impossible. The Causes Leading Up to the Great Depression The Stock Market Crash of 1929 was the main event that triggered the Great Depression. When President Herbert Hoover became president in March 1929, the United

The fall started on October 18th and people began to get worried. They hurried to sell stocks and on October 24 or Black Thursday, 12,894,650 shares were sold or exchanged. This trade was record breaking, large investment companies tried to balance the market by purchasing enormous amounts of stocks. On Black Monday the stock market plummeted down. “Black Monday was followed by Black Tuesday (October 29), in which stock prices collapsed completely and 16,410,030 shares were traded on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors, and stock tickers ran hours behind because the machinery could not handle the tremendous volume of trading” ("Stock Market Crash of 1929”, History.com). Stock prices continued to decline and the Great Depression began in the United States. The crash of 1929 was not the only cause of the Depression; however it was a major factor and sped up the collapse of the economy worldwide. By 1933, 15 million people were out of a job and a majority of the United States’ banks had deteriorated ("Stock Market Crash of 1929”,

When the attack on Pearl Harbor happened on December 7, 1941 it pushed the United States to send troops to join the war effort. As men left to join the army, women took over their jobs. The nation’s war efforts boosted the economy and officially ended the Great Depression. The nation quickly passed laws relating to banks and businesses. “Organized labor was legalized through the Wagner Act, but at the price of compliance with subsequent legal measures that were the product of a less pro-labor political climate. Finally, the Social Security system addressed the issue of poverty” (Breitzer). After the Depression, America became more cautious with their spending. They created many regulations hoping to prevent another economic crisis like the Great Depression. While a stock market crash like 1929 can happen again, it is highly unlikely. The New York Stock Exchange has created many safety precautions meant to help the market if signs of a crash show (“Lessons from