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How Did Speculation Cause The Great Depression

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Speculation was a huge factor in causing the stock market crash of 1929 as it meant that people were to buy stocks of large risks and regular people were able to buy stocks that they couldn’t afford by being able to borrow large amounts of money from banks. Secondly, individual manipulation of the stock market was a significant factor in causing the depression as the wealthy would buy a large amount of shares, increasing the stock price and selling all the shares. This caused an unfair distribution of wealth as the rich stayed rich and the poor stayed poor. This problem was solved by issuing the Emergency Banking Crisis in 1933 and Security Exchange Commission in 1934. The Securities Exchange Commission provided a framework which tacked speculation
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1071 Words | 5 Pages

In September of 1929 Allen explains that the stock market crashes for the first time then rebounded, but by the end of October, the market was officially broken. The stock market crash made the Americans who invested into the Bull Market in left them empty-handed. The decline of the stock market caused the entire United States economy to slip into the Great Depression which lasted for approximately 10 years because many Americans lost money they initially invested. However, the during the time of the instability of the stock market Allen explains that Americans thought the market would rebut itself. In fact, the Harvard Economic Society hypothesized that the stock market would not suffer in a “business depression,” however, the Society did not realize that Great Depression was in the future.

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Buying on credit, overproduction, and income inequality were just some of the leading factors to the great depression. It began when installment buying was introduced people didn’t view debts as shameful and bought things at a faster rate than they could pay. People were also investing a lot in the stock market one day it crashed. October 29, 1929 (now known as black tuesday) was the day the stock market crashed. It caused great panic in America since many peoples entire life savings were lost in one day.

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1053 Words | 5 Pages

Leuchtenberg sad, “There was no single cause of the crash and ensuing depression,” [Doc2]. Many things as stated earlier contributed to the crash, such as overexpansion of credit, goods, industries and rising rates of unemployment. Many Americans saw the Stock Market as an easy way to create wealth by buying stocks cheap, usually at a margin, and selling for a higher price, hopeful to profit. Buying on margin was the act of paying some money on a stock, but loaning the rest from a bank who expected would be paid back when profit was made. Stocks became more expensive to the point where nobody wanted to buy them because of their extreme price.

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468 Words | 2 Pages

The immense stock crash in October 1929 was one of the many causes of the Great Depression. Banks were putting an abundant amount of money into the stock market, and could not keep up with the fast demand. The value of our currency dropped, thus leading to us losing more money, and many Americans were unemployed, plus low wages. As a way for America to make a profit, they put taxes on other country's products to protect American industries. American citizens were furious at the banks for losing their money not being able to pay them back.

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174 Words | 1 Pages

The great depression in the US, which began in 1929, and ended in 1938 was caused by many different things all happening at the same time in the economy. The wall street crash in October 1929 was one of the main causes, when the stock markets crashed. This was caused by many things, but the main reason for it was a deflation (which is an event where the general level of prices in an economy are reduced) On October 24th (black Thursday), share prices dropped by 14 billion dollars in a day, and more than 30 billion in a week. This forced many of the banks to close, due to them investing their client’s savings in the stock market.

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846 Words | 4 Pages

The stock market crash was a huge catastrophe that affected millions of Americans, even those not involved in the stock market, “[The crash] came suddenly, and violently, after holders of stocks had been lulled into a sense of security” (Document 1). After a huge drop in stock prices, many stock owners sold their stock in fear of losing money. The stock market was down $14 million, which even today is a very substantial number. FDR saw the issue in this, and immediately worked to eliminate the issue as well as prevent it for future generations. The Federal Securities Act of 1933, mandating that all companies selling stock provide proof of their company’s worth, and the Securities Exchange Commission of 1934, monitoring the stock market to ensure no one corrupts the stock market, allowed stock to be sold and bought safely once

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1069 Words | 5 Pages

The Stock market Crash was one of the causes of the Great Depression. One cause of the Stock Market Crash was the stock exchange. This led thousands of Americans to invest in stocks and lose money. Many Americans borrowed money from the bank to buy stocks. Most of the time, people who lost money were unable to pay the banks back their debt; which caused banks to fail.

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957 Words | 4 Pages

The purchase of a stock with hopes that the value will increase but not actually knowing it will is known as speculation, this combined with the heavy use of installment buying caused many people to fall into extreme debt, creating an unstable economy and leading to the Great Depression. Since it was no longer seen as shameful to be in debt, the American people were now taking advantage of credit and installment buying (Document 6). People wanted to maintain this new standard of living and did so by amassing large amounts of debt through this buy now, pay later system. This acceptable economic prices, combined with the speculative purchase of stocks led to a detrimental economic downfall. The prices of stock were driven up based on this speculation instead of any increase in the profits of the business (Document 5).

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994 Words | 4 Pages

Consequently, this method of purchasing goods became a huge problem because some buyers were unable to repay the lender, putting them in debt and hurting businesses. Money was not being used responsibly during this time period leading to the Stock Market Crash in 1929. There were so many events and foolish actions that people consider as causes of the worst economic downturn. Speculation,

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Due to many people using banks to lend them money in order for them to buy stocks they got into debt. Many investors were unable to pay their loans causing banks to fail. In a New York Times edition in October 29, 1929 (Document 3) it states, “ Stock Prices Slump $14,000,000,000 In NationWide Stampede To Unload Bankers To Support Market Today.” Many banks lent money to speculatory stock investors.

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810 Words | 4 Pages

The crash was caused by people doing more and more installment buying and they did not have the money to pay for everything they bought so basically everybody stopped buying the things they wanted at the same time because they all had the realization that they had no money. As document 5 titled A History of the American People it is stated that, “The final development that set the stage for the collapse of American prosperity in 1929 was the speculative boom that developed with increasing intensity. . . more investors put their money into securities(stocks). . .” This is supporting the fact that when the stock market crashed people lost more than they ever thought they

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372 Words | 2 Pages

The Great Depression was an economic crisis in the United States from 1929-1941. The Stock Market Crash was one of the primary reasons that caused the Great Depression. The Stock Market Crash was caused by too many people withdrawing their money from banks at the same time. This happened because they heard that banks were going to close and they didn’t want to lose their money because of that. Banks needed people’s money to use for investments and since they didn’t have any, banks began to close.

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1384 Words | 6 Pages

The stock market crash of 1929 is often viewed as what started the Great Depression. However, the crash was not the cause of the depression but one of several factors that contributed to it. One possible cause of the Great Depression was the rapid expansion of credit in the 1920s, which led to a boom in consumer spending and stock market speculation. This created a false sense of prosperity, which eventually led to the crash. Another possible cause of the Great Depression was the unequal distribution of wealth in the United States.

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726 Words | 3 Pages

The Great Depression was caused by speculation and installment buying, income maldistribution, and overproduction because each of these factors combined made the economy worse before and after the stock market crash, which led to The Great Depression. Speculation and installment buying helped caused The Great Depression because people were buying so much stuff on credit, when

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1270 Words | 6 Pages

Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen is one of the greatest novelists of English Literature. She was born in 1775 at Steventon in Hampshire, in the south of England. Her father was Reverend George Austen, who was a well-educated clergyman and who encouraged Austen both in her reading and her writing. She started writing when she was fourteen, and by her early twenties she was already working on the first versions of some of her novels. She did not write about great events, like the French Revolution or the Napoleonic Wars, both of which happened during her lifetime.

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