ipl-logo

What Caused The Great Depression

908 Words4 Pages

The Great Depression was the worst economic downturn in U.S history. It caused over half of the banks in the U.S to fail and shutdown, it brought poverty and unemployment levels to all time highs, and it also placed social, psychological, and ofcourse economic burdens on every family in the U.S. The Great Depression started after a stock market crash in 1929, but what caused the stock market to crash? Well throughout the period known as “The Roaring Twenties” the United States’ economy had grown expansively. The New York Stock Exchange, also know as NYSE was the place where millionaires and even janitors and cooks would invest their every cent into stocks. Due to this huge growth in investment the stock markets underwent rapid expansions until reaching its peak in the August of 1929. By 1929 unemployment has risen and production had declined. This made stock prices unusually high, so high that they were worth way more than their legitimate value. To …show more content…

In the depths of the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected. Roosevelt took immediate action, announcing a “Four-day bank holiday”. During this time reforms would pass that would reopen the banks as if nothing had happened. Roosevelt also addressed the public on the radio, boosting the confidence and hope of his listeners. By the first 100 days Roosevelt had done everything in his power to stabilize industrial and agricultural production, and to make jobs available for the unemployed. Roosevelt also looked to find solutions so that another crisis did not happen again, as a result he created the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) which protected the accounts of depositors. He also created the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) which regulated the stock market and prevented future abuse as the one that led to the crash of 1929. With the aid of other programs the “road of recovery” had

Show More
Related
449 Words | 2 Pages

Also passing emergency banking relief act, all within the first 100 hundred days of being in office. The final step to kicking the great depression out was WWII, which really boosted American industries in 1939. Eighty-eighty years after black tuesday the U.S. Stock market is a well oiled machine now. Hopefully America has learned from the mistakes of the past and are ready to handle any crisis that comes our way. Luckily the New York stock exchange and the NASDAQ rank #1 and 2 in the

Read More
469 Words | 2 Pages

The people lost all to most of their money in the bank crisis and Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted to do something about it. He created The Emergency Banking Relief or Bank Holiday and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation(FDIC). The Bank Holiday was an act that closed all the banks in america for four days. In the time of closure they got all the unsafe banks in order by the government. When the banks opened they were more sound because of the

Read More
758 Words | 4 Pages

In 1933, after a third banking panic, Roosevelt had decided to make a bank holiday to help close financial institutions to stop a run on banks and help the economy. Franklin D. Roosevelt had initiated the New Deal program to help restore confidence in the U.S. He had made a social welfare a federal government priority, made new roles for the government, and changed the focus of national partisan politics. It helped public works programs, stimulate banks, insured savings, and improve business practices. During Roosevelt’s first 100 days he had made some other changes to the U.S economy.

Read More
755 Words | 4 Pages

As stocks continued to fall, the nation lost hope, businesses were failing and unemployment rose dramatically. The president at the time, Herbert Hoover, did many things to control and put an end to the great depression but was unsuccessful. And so the inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt felt like a miracle for the destitute americans. Franklin saw the miserable state of the U.S economy and had a plan, the New deal, This consisted of many fresh ideas to fix the problems of the Great Depression, such as the Glass Steagall Banking Reform Act which was established to properly segregate commercial banking from investment banking. This act created the federal deposit Insurance which ended a century long tradition of unstable banking that reached a crisis during the Great depression.

Read More
1159 Words | 5 Pages

This caused a stalemate with the governments economic relationship with the people in that the government didn't do much to improve the economy until Roosevelt came into office . Yet when Roosevelt first came to office the brain trust and him enacted the banking holiday where he shut down all the banks to be put under inspection so when reopened he could reaffirm there after both throughout fireside chats and throughout FDIC which although passed later was immensely important that banks were safe .This one of the first tools FDR used that brought the government back into social and economic affairs so he could undo the cloud of problems covering the depression. In addition to the creation of the NRA to aid the economy , FDR created welfare programs such as the CWA and the CCC. Both programs put people to work on temporary project funded by the government.

Read More
880 Words | 4 Pages

Roosevelt leads America through the depression and helped the American people recover. Roosevelt becomes President after Hoover, easily beating Hoover who was blamed by many for the depression. In his first "hundred days" of office, Roosevelt started a program to bring recovery to business and agriculture, relief to unemployed and to the people in danger of losing their homes. Despite his efforts, America was still suffering and Roosevelt looked to a more aggressive federal program. This include the creation of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) which provided jobs for the unemployed.

Read More
904 Words | 4 Pages

From his campaigns, there was the promise of a plan called the New Deal, which would improve the lives of people in America, fixing problems that the Great Depression caused, in turn boosting morale and popularity for FDR as well. By the day after he was sworn into office, FDR declared the banks would have something new called a bank holiday, where banks would close down for an indefinite time, where the government would do a thorough inspection,closing banks also. After some banks reopened, people deposited the money that was withdrawn in panic at the stock market crash, restoring a part of America’s currency,in turn stabilizing America. Roosevelt claimed that the banks were safer than “money under the mattress”(Franklin Delano Roosevelt, March 12, 1933). This was the Emergency Banking Relief Act, a program that was to save the banks of the US and stop people from withdrawing money in panic, as well as one of the new acts that Roosevelt implemented in his first 100 days of presidency, with great effect.

Read More
855 Words | 4 Pages

Roosevelt was elected President and with him comes new hope. This hope comes in the form of what Roosevelt called a New Deal. He began by having the banks take a four-day bank holiday and worked with Congress to come up with a way to save the banks. By the end of March 1933, three quarters of all the banks that were closed were reopened. Roosevelt created jobs for men between the ages of 17-27 to work fighting forests fires, and on federal land building roads and building parks.

Read More
1884 Words | 8 Pages

Roosevelt also responded to this all-time low in the United States with new ideas to rebuild the country: Social Security, taxing the wealthy more, different power over banks and public utilities, and a huge work relief program for the unemployed. ("Franklin D. Roosevelt," The White) Roosevelt also ordered a brief closing of all banks in order to standstill the run on deposits. ("Franklin D. Roosevelt," Biography.com) In FDR’s first "hundred days," he thought up and got approved by congress, a far-reaching program that was programed to revive business and agriculture, bring peace to the Americans in tough financial situations, and improve America in all, especially through the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority. ("Franklin D.

Read More
491 Words | 2 Pages

By March, during the depression, unemployment was up to about 13,000,000. It was at that point when FDR started making his program to bring recovery to businesses and agriculture. That program was called the New Deal. He ordered temporary closure on all banks. As time went by the nation had recovered a little, but many began not to trust FDR.

Read More
1424 Words | 6 Pages

“…only two days after he took office, Roosevelt closed all of the banks and set up a committee to determine the soundness of each one before allowing it to reopen” (“Franklin Delano Roosevelt”). Every bank in the country closed because Roosevelt wanted to determine how each bank financially stood, and would reopen them once Congress could support the international banking system. In doing this, he prevented a sudden failure of all banks over the entire country. Many Americans became hopeful after seeing Roosevelt’s sudden, confident decisions as president. President Roosevelt also created several organizations regarding unemployment to help give citizens work.

Read More
925 Words | 4 Pages

public’s confidence in their government. One successful way in which Roosevelt managed to connect to the American people were his fireside talks. Fireside talks were down-to-earth and straight forward radio addresses. They were informal and Roosevelt presented the New Deal and its policies--in order to gain more popular support--in a way that showed he was a man of the people; he made the government and the New Deal appear more personal. Another way that Roosevelt managed to regain the American public’s support was through Bank Holiday, a week in March of 1933 where the U.S. Government, under orders from FDR, shut down all of the banks on a Monday, sent bank examiners to check each banks solvency, and then allowed the solvent ones to reopen the next Monday.

Read More
585 Words | 3 Pages

America had experienced other depressions or “panics,” but none were like the Great Depression. The Great Depression began on October 29, 1929, Black Tuesday, with the stock market crashing. Most people believe that the cause of the Great Depression was the stock market crashing. Although that is what triggered the Great Depression there were many underlying causes that lead up to the stock market crashing. Some of the underlying causes include under-consumption/over-production, uneven distribution of wealth, loose banking and corporate regulations, tariffs policies, and the stock market.

Read More
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

Read More
780 Words | 4 Pages

There were a variety of causes that caused the Great Depression, but the main cause that started it was a decrease in spending. This led to production decrease because manufacturers and merchandisers did not want to have unused items just sitting on the shelves. In October of 1929 the stock market crashed. The United States stock prices had reached levels that could not be justified by sensible predictions of future earnings. The results of this were catastrophic.

Read More

More about What Caused The Great Depression

Related Topics

Open Document