ipl-logo

Causes Of The Great Depression Essay

727 Words3 Pages

The Main Causes of the Great Depression

The Great Depression left a scar on America and her economy. It was an important part of American history though, and knowing about it what caused it and how it ended is key to making sure it does not rear its ugly head again. There were many different causes of the Great Depression, but of the many include the “Roaring Twenties,” the Stock Market Crash of 1929, and eventually what ended the Great Depression: World War II.

The events leading up to the Great Depression were calling for economic collapse. In August of 1929, the New York Stock Market reached the height of investment. Everyone “from millionaire tycoons to cooks and janitors” decided that it was a promising idea to “pour their life savings …show more content…

Around December of 1929, ‘The unemployment rate was still just 3.2%. Since unemployment is a lagging indicator, it hadn’t started to worsen yet. (Amadeo). However, at the height of the Great Depression, unemployment reached 24.9%. (Amadeo). All of this started however, on Thursday, October 24, a day that would soon be dubbed “Black Thursday.” On that day, nervous investors decided to try to get out of their investment and trade their stocks. So, “a record 12.9 million shares were traded that day,” (Great Depression History). Unfortunately, soon after “Black Tuesday” occurred. On that day, “some 16 million shares were traded” (Great Depression History). These two days began what was infamously called the stock market crash of 1929. Just before the Great Depression hit in 1929, a gallon of milk cost around 35 cents per gallon, about six dollars; after the stock market crash however, milk prices plummeted to 26 cents per gallon. This happened because dairy farmers still had milk they needed to sell, but nobody could pay 35 cents for a gallon of milk, so the farmers reduced the prices to 26 cents to attempt to get people to buy their milk. Both Black Thursday, and Black Tuesday were detrimental on the American economy, and all of this was caused by nervous

More about Causes Of The Great Depression Essay

Open Document