Three Main Causes Of The Great Depression

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“An entire nation, it seemed, was standing in one long breadline, desperate for even the barest essentials. It was a crisis of monumental proportions. It was known as the Great Depression” -Kathi Appelt. As seen in this quote here, the Great Depression was a time of economic disaster and failure throughout the United States. The Great Depression lasted for many years and brought countless people down in the mess of it all. The three main factors to the economic collapse during this period was the Stock market crash of 1929, the failure of many banks in the United States, and a severe drought.
The Stock market crash of 1929, also called the Great Crash, was a sharp decline in U.S. stock market values, which was the biggest factor of economic decline during the Great Depression. Although it was not the direct cause of the Depression, it worsened it by creating factors that led to economic downfall. On October 24 of 1929, otherwise known as Black Thursday, a record 12,894,650 shares were traded. Investment companies went into scramble as they tried to balance the market. However, the next week, on “Black Tuesday”, the stock market had officially collapsed. By then, around 16,410,030 shares were traded in the New York Stock Exchange. Billions of dollars were lost and many citizens jobs were affected from the collapse. Several companies had to lay off huge amounts of employees. The economy was on the brink of disaster. By 1933, nearly half of America 's banks had failed, and