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Compare And Contrast The 1930s And The Great Depression

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The 2008 Great Recession and the 1930s Great Depression are both aftermaths of similar economic circumstances and are only different in a few ways. Despite the difference in severity of the stock market crash, both periods are unmistakingly marked by speculation on stock leading to Americans buying on margin resulting to the government needing to intervene.
Speculation on stock led to the historic stock market crash in 1929 that brought on the Great Depression, similarly speculation on housing prices in 2003-2007 brought on the 2008 recession. With little regulations on stock market purchases leading up to the Great Depression, investors were able to buy stocks on margin, with the only requirement that they put 10% down. In other words, …show more content…

Stock market regulations were put in place during the Great Depression to prevent the same calamity from repeating in the financial markets, but seventy years later, Americans had a similar mindset about the housing market. Millions of people bought homes they could not afford, with money they did not have, taking out 100% or 110% loans. This led to necessary government interventions, both in the 1930s and 2008. While President Herbert Hoover widely ignored the causes and effects of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt took urgent command when he was elected and sworn into office in March 1933. President Roosevelt introduced various regulations to prevent a financial disaster from recurring, he aimed to alleviate the fears of the American public, and he invested billions of dollars in federal funding toward job creation. Relief measures included the continuation of Hoover's major relief program for the unemployed under its new name: Federal Emergency Relief Administration. The most popular of all New Deal agencies was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which hired 250,000 unemployed young men to work on rural local projects. President Barack Obama followed in Roosevelt’s footsteps. Working with Congress, the Administration took

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