Discuss The Causes Of The Great Depression

Today, there are several different theories as to what the causes of the Great Depression are. There is clearly more than one cause of this devastating event in American history. The Great Depression occurred during the years 1929 through 1939, approximately ten years. During these awful ten years two presidents had the opportunity to try and reroute the American economy. Both of these presidents, Hoover and Roosevelt, had polar opposite approaches to the situation. Three issues they had to deal with was the tragedy of the stock market crash, collapsing of banks, and the increase of the high unemployment rate. For each of these particular causes of the depression both of these presidents went about a different way as to how to solve them.

Hoover issued the local and state government the authority to help relief the poor, unemployed people living in those areas. However, local and state government did not have the resources or money to do so. All of Hoover’s ideas to help reform the American government after the stock market crash, bank collapsing, and high unemployment failed. The only effort of his that helped was the Agricultural Marketing Act. This act authorized loans to farmers to avoid becoming bankrupt. However, this act did was not completely successful either, because those loans were expected to be paid back, and the farmers could not afford to do that. All of Hoover’s failed decisions led to a new president, Roosevelt, during the next election. When Roosevelt was elected president, Republicans lost control of Congress, and Democrats held most government positions. President Roosevelt’s idea to take control of the Great Depression was known as the New Deal. The efforts of the New Deal were to relief, recovery, and reform America. Roosevelt believed it was the federal government’s duty and priority to take care of the social welfare of

The first New Deal helped to bring relief and recovery to America as planned. During the Second New Deal the Works Progress Administration was created. This administration sponsored new projects which created more employment opportunities. These new jobs also created new social interactions. Many different races worked together on particular projects established under the Works Progress Administration. Another act formed during the Second New Deal was the Fair Labor Standards Acts. Roosevelt issued this Act to establish a minimum wage for American workers, as well as, the standard American work week of forty