Great+Depression

=== T he Great Depression was an economic slump in North America, Europe, and other industrialized areas of the world that began in 1929 and lasted until about 1939. It was the longest and most severe depression ever experienced by the industrialized Western world. === ===Though the U.S. economy had gone into depression six months earlier, the Great Depression may be said to have begun with a catastrophic collapse of stock-market prices on the New York Stock Exchange in October 1929. During the next three years stock prices in the United States continued to fall, until by late 1932 they had dropped to only about 20 percent of their value in 1929. Besides ruining many thousands of individual investors, this precipitous decline in the value of assets greatly strained banks and other financial institutions, particularly those holding stocks in their portfolios. Many banks were consequently forced into insolvency; by 1933, 11,000 of the United States' 25,000 banks had failed. The failure of so many banks, combined with a general and nationwide loss of confidence in the economy, led to much-reduced levels of spending and demand and hence of production, thus aggravating the downward spiral. The result was drastically falling output and drastically rising unemployment; by 1932, U.S. manufacturing output had fallen to 54 percent of its 1929 level, and unemployment had risen to between 12 and 15 million workers, or 25-30 percent of the work force.=== ===The Great Depression began in the United States but quickly turned into a worldwide economic slump owing to the special and intimate relationships that had been forged between the United States and European economies after World War I. The United States had emerged from the war as the major creditor and financier of postwar Europe, whose national economies had been greatly weakened by the war itself, by war debts, and, in the case of Germany and other defeated nations, by the need to pay war reparations. So once the American economy slumped and the flow of American investment credits to Europe dried up, prosperity tended to collapse there as well. The Depression hit hardest those nations that were most deeply indebted to the United States, i.e., Germany and Great Britain. In Germany, unemployment rose sharply beginning in late 1929, and by early 1932 it had reached 6 million workers, or 25 percent of the work force. Britain was less severely affected, but its industrial and export sectors remained seriously depressed until World War II. Many other countries had been affected by the slump by 1931.The Great Depression started in 1929===

The Stock Market Crash was one of the main reasons for the Great Depression. Billions of dollars of stocks were lost. The Stock Market crashed on October 29, 1929. This day is known as "Black Tuesday." As a result of the crash, unemployment went up, people lost their homes, and people were very poor and could not afford the necessities of life. Fifty percent of the children in the United States did not have "adequate food, shelter, clothing, or medical care." Some went completely without these necessities. Children started fainting because they did not have enough to eat. Many people had to go to soup kitchens to get food. The lines were very long. People would spend all day waiting in line just to get a small meal. Soup kitchens were run by charities. Some people did not even have a soup kitchen to go to. People had to pick trash to find food.

In the 1920s there were no governmental programs to help those who had fallen on hard times. As a result of the Great Depression we know have many governmental agencies to help in times of need. People did not have money for necessities so there was no way they were going out and buying things they did need. Companies that sold items such as car and other appliance that were selling like crazy before the depression were not selling anything. So production factories stop making money so more people lost jobs.

People who did have jobs made barely enough to survive. Hired farm hands only made $216.00 a year. A doctor made $3,382.99 a year. The Great Depression was the worst economic depression in United States history. It started on October 29, 1929, a day known as Black Tuesday when the stock market crashed. This crashing of the stock market actually started the previous Thursday when market dropped 9%. Historians point to several factors that caused this crash. Looking back some of the comparisons to today are interesting. Businesses were making great profits in the 1920s while workers were not making very much while still buying merchandise on credit. Another historian writes that the crash came during a period in which real estate prices were declining which had peaked four years earlier.

The Great Depression occurred in the United States from 1929-1939. Many people lost their jobs after the stock market crash. The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding world war 2.The Great Depression had devastating effects in virtually every country, rich and poor. The Great depression. The Great Depression is all about people losing their money or their belongings. Mr. Roosevelt had a lot to do with The Great Depression. When the election of 1932 came around many had lost hope in President Herbert Hoover. They knew that he couldn’t get the country out of Depression. Hoover ran for election against democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Who campaigned on the “new deal for the American people.” By the time he took office in 1933, one quarter of the U.S. work ford—15million people—were unemployed. Hourly wages were 60 percent lower than they had been in 1932. And more main details are all about Huey Long, Father Charles Coughlin, and the Hover Dam, and President Herbert Hover. Now that’s a lot of stuff to learn. when people where homless and where in boxes and such they called them hoovervilles.

Huey long was a popular governor of Louisiana who wanted to be president. He called his program “Share our wealth “, which called upon the Government to guarantee every family in the nation an income of 5,000 dollars was assassinated in 1935. Father Charles Coughlin was a Catholic priest who had a popular radio program. At first he supported the President, but then he began to claim that Roosevelt’s polices favored the rich. However, Coughlin replaced his calls for justice with Jewish attacks! People named a town Hooverville because of president Herbert Hoover the people lived in tents and said that it’s all President Herbert Hoovers fault. Important places were the school the school had to do with less money. School systems cut down on new hiring teachers and buying new books. Children learned in only one room school houses they had teachers that were 16 who had no training. The Hoover Dam was built on the Colorado river between Arizona and Nevada. It was the first called the Boulder Dam but it got renamed Hoover Dam because they were blaming it all on president Herbert Hoover. So they named it Hoover Dam.

Soup kitchens: people couldn’t afford a lot of food unless you worked on a farm and grew crops. Or if you had money there would most likely be a soup kitchen that people could just go to. Some facts that I didn’t mention: in Germany free meals were served at the soup kitchens a lot of people came. Workers were sitting down while doing there job. Why would they do that. Some employees tried to get as much work as possible for little pay only. Many of the employees became homeless. People found what they could to live in or live on. Like super old cars, and packing cartons and more! And that’s about it! BYE!

Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected president of the USA in 1932. He had three goals, the first was to help jobless and poor. The second was to help the nations economy recover. Finally he wanted to reform conditions that had brought on the Great Depression. He worked with Congress and put in new programs like “ The New Deal “. Herbert Hoover was inaugurated as president on March 4, 1929. On October 29, 1929, The Stock Market Crash, known as black Tuesday, was blamed on President Hoover. For this, people named him Hapless Hoover. Dr. Francis Townsend was an American doctor who was best known for his revolving old age pension proposal during the Great Depression. Known as the Townsend Plan, it proposed that Americans over 60 with no other income be paid two hundred dollars a month. People receiving this money were required to spend the money within 30 days.
 * //The Great Depression 1929-1939//**

All of the soup kitchens were very important because they were the only place where the poor people could go to eat. It was a local charity that would happily give you a free meal including soup and a piece of bread. Another important place was the American Union Bank in New York City. That was the bank that everybody crowded around after it had failed. President Roosevelt declared a federal bank holiday in order to prevent depositors from removing more money from the banks, and to stop further escalation of the bank crisis. Blacks were frequently forced out of jobs to give jobs to unimployed whites. The Tennessee Valley Authority installed a generator at Wheeler Dam that was designed to harness the power of the Tennessee River. The TVA succeeded brining electricity to southern regions that had previously been without power.

The Great Depression of 1929-1939 was a worldwide phenomenon that resulted from economic and political decisions made immediately following World War I. With the exception of the Soviet Union, the depression profoundly affected each of the major powers: USA, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, and Japan. However, after the failure of the World Economic Conference of 1933 there were no attempts to find solutions through international cooperation.

In 1920, the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act raised important duties on a variety of industrial products and raw materials. The Tariff Act protected American businesses from foreign competition. The Hawley-Smoot Tariff in America began as a tariff on agricultural products and was quickly expanded to include industrial commodities as well. In 1933 Congress passed many New Deal programs during the first 100 days of Roosevelt’s term. One was the Civilian Conservation Corps. Or CCC. It set up work camps for more than 2 million unemployed young men and gave them wages, housing, and food. The men worked to conserve forests and other natural resources. Several New Deal programs created jobs or encouraged private companies to create more jobs. Others aimed to help the banking system get back on its feet. The Securities and Exchange Act which was passed in 1934 to protect investors from dishonest financial practices by stockbrokers and banks is till in effect today. It established the SEcuriteis and Exchange Commission to examine the financial statements of companies that issue stocks and bonds to ensure that worthless securities cannot be sold. It continues to regulate the American Stock Market in such a way that most economists agree that a failure like that of October 1929 would be unlikely today.

**ks** The Great Depression was the worst economic depression in United States history. It started on October 29, 1929, a day known as ** Black Tuesday when the stock market crashed. This crashing of the stock market actually started the previous Thursday when market dropped 9%. Historians point to several factors that caused this crash. Looking back some of the comparisons to today are interesting. Businesses were making great profits in the 1920s while workers were not making very much while still buying merchandise on credit. Another historian writes that the crash came during a period in which real estate prices were declining which had peaked four years earlier. ** HOPE THAT HELPED!
 * The Great Depression was the worst economic depression in United States history. It started on October 29, 1929, a day known as Black Tuesday when the stock market crashed. This crashing of the stock market actually started the previous Thursday when market dropped 9%. Historians point to several factors that caused this crash. Looking back some of the comparisons to today are interestiThe Great Depression was the worst economic depression in United States history. It started on October 29, 1929, a day known as Black Tuesday when the stock market crashed. This crashing of the stock market actually started the previous Thursday when market dropped 9%. Historians point to several factors that caused this crash. Looking back some of the comparisons to today are interesting. Businesses were making great profits in the 1920s while workers were not making very much while still buying merchandise on credit. Another historian writes that the crash came during a period in which real estate prices were declining which had peaked four years earlier.ng. Businesses were making great profits in the 1920s while workers were not making very much while still buying merchandise on credit. Another historian writes that the crash came during a period in which real estate prices were declining which had peaked four years earlier. were frequently forced out of jobs in order to give them to unemployed whites. **

TIMELINES OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION:

 * 1920s (Decade)**
 * During World War I, federal spending grows three times larger than tax collections. When the government cuts back spending to balance the budget in 1920, a severe recession results. However, the war economy invested heavily in the manufacturing sector, and the next decade will see an explosion of productivity... although only for certain sectors of the economy.
 * An average of 600 banks fail each year.
 * Organized labor declines throughout the decade. The United Mine Workers Union will see its membership fall from 500,000 in 1920 to 75,000 in 1928. The American Federation of Labor would fall from 5.1 million in 1920 to 3.4 million in 1929.
 * Over the decade, about 1,200 mergers will swallow up more than 6,000 previously independent companies; by 1929, only 200 corporations will control over half of all American industry.
 * By the end of the decade, the bottom 80 percent of all income-earners will be removed from the tax rolls completely. Taxes on the rich will fall throughout the decade.
 * By 1929, the richest 1 percent will own 40 percent of the nation's wealth. The bottom 93 percent will have experienced a 4 percent drop in real disposable per-capita income between 1923 and 1929.
 * Individual worker productivity rises an astonishing 43 percent from 1919 to 1929. But the rewards are being funneled to the top: the number of people reporting half-million dollar incomes grows from 156 to 1,489 between 1920 and 1929, a phenomenal rise compared to other decades. But that is still less than 1 percent of all income-earners.
 * 1922**
 * The conservative Supreme Court strikes down federal child labor legislation.
 * 1923**
 * President Warren Harding dies in office. Calvin Coolidge, becomes president. Coolidge is no less committed to laissez-faire and a non-interventionist government.
 * Supreme Court nullifies minimum wage for women in District of Columbia.
 * 1924**
 * The stock market begins its spectacular rise. Bears little relation to the rest of the economy.
 * 1925**
 * The top tax rate is lowered to **25 percent** - the lowest top rate in the eight decades since World War I.
 * 1928**
 * Between May 1928 and September 1929, the average prices of stocks will rise 40 percent. The boom is largely artificial.
 * 1929**
 * Herbert Hoover becomes President.
 * Annual per-capita income is $750. More than half of all Americans are living below a minimum subsistence level.
 * Backlog of business inventories grows three times larger than the year before.
 * Recession begins in August, two months before the stock market crash. During this two month period, production will decline at an annual rate of 20 percent, wholesale prices at 7.5 percent, and personal income at 5 percent.
 * Stock market crash begins October 24. Investors call October 29 **Black Tuesday**. Losses for the month will total $16 billion, an astronomical sum in those days.
 * 1930**
 * By February, the Federal Reserve has cut the prime interest rate from 6 to 4 percent. Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon announces that the Fed will stand by as the market works itself out: 'Liquidate labor, liquidate real estate... values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wreck from less-competent people'.
 * The Smoot-Hawley Tariff passes on June 17. With imports forming only 6 percent of the GNP, the 40 percent tariffs work out to an effective tax of only 2.4 percent per citizen. Even this is compensated for by the fact that American businesses are no longer investing in Europe, but keeping their money stateside. The consensus of modern economists is that the tariff made only a minor contribution to the Great Depression in the U.S., but a major one in Europe.
 * Supreme Court rules that the monopoly U.S. Steel does not violate anti-trust laws as long as competition exists, no matter how negligible.
 * The GNP falls 9.4 percent from the year before. The unemployment rate climbs from 3.2 to 8.7 percent.
 * 1931**
 * No major legislation is passed addressing the Depression.
 * The GNP falls another 8.5 percent; unemployment rises to 15.9 percent.
 * 1932**
 * This and the next year are the worst years of the Great Depression. For 1932, GNP falls a record 13.4 percent; unemployment rises to 23.6 percent.
 * Industrial stocks have lost 80 percent of their value since 1930.
 * 10,000 banks have failed since 1929, or 40 percent of the 1929 total.
 * GNP has also fallen 31 percent since 1929.
 * Over 13 million Americans have lost their jobs since 1929.
 * International trade has fallen by two-thirds since 1929.

The above timeline has been complied by Steve Kangas from the Resurgence Magazine. See also cycle of past depressions.
 * Top tax rate is raised from **25 to 63 percent**.
 * Popular opinion considers Hoover's measures too little too late. Franklin Roosevelt easily defeats Hoover in the fall election. Democrats win control of Congress.
 * 1933**
 * Roosevelt inaugurated; begins 'First 100 Days'; of intensive legislative activity.
 * A third banking panic occurs in March. Roosevelt declares a Bank Holiday; closes financial institutions to stop a run on banks.
 * Alarmed by Roosevelt's plan to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor, a group of millionaire businessmen, led by the Du Pont and J.P. Morgan empires, plans to overthrow Roosevelt with a military coup and install a fascist government modelled after Mussolini's regime in Italy. The businessmen try to recruit General Smedley Butler, promising him an army of 500,000, unlimited financial backing and generous media spin control. The plot is foiled when Butler reports it to Congress.
 * Congress authorizes creation of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Farm Credit Administration, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the National Recovery Administration, the Public Works Administration and the Tennessee Valley Authority.
 * Congress passes the Emergency Banking Bill, the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, the Farm Credit Act, the National Industrial Recovery Act and the Truth-in-Securities Act.
 * Roosevelt does much to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor, but is concerned with a balanced budget. He later rejects Keynes' advice to begin heavy deficit spending.
 * The free fall of the GNP is significantly slowed; it dips only 2.1 percent this year. Unemployment rises slightly, to 24.9 percent.
 * 1934**
 * Congress authorizes creation of the Federal Communications Commission, the National Mediation Board and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
 * The economy turns around: GNP rises 7.7 percent, and unemployment falls to 21.7 percent. A long road to recovery begins.
 * Sweden becomes the first nation to recover fully from the Great Depression. It has followed a policy of Keynesian deficit spending.
 * 1935**
 * The Supreme Court declares the National Recovery Administration to be unconstitutional.
 * Congress authorizes creation of the Works Progress Administration, the National Labor Relations Board and the Rural Electrification Administration.
 * Congress passes the Banking Act of 1935, the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act, the National Labor Relations Act, and the Social Security Act.
 * Economic recovery continues: the GNP grows another 8.1 percent, and unemployment falls to 20.1 percent.
 * 1936**
 * Top tax rate raised to **79 percent**.
 * Economic recovery continues: GNP grows a record 14.1 percent; unemployment falls to 16.9 percent.
 * 1937**
 * The Supreme Court declares the National Labor Relations Board to be unconstitutional.
 * Roosevelt seeks to enlarge and therefore liberalize the Supreme Court. This attempt not only fails, but outrages the public.
 * Economists attribute economic growth so far to heavy government spending that is somewhat deficit. Roosevelt, however, fears an unbalanced budget and cuts spending for 1937. That summer, the nation plunges into another recession. Despite this, the yearly GNP rises 5.0 percent, and unemployment falls to 14.3 percent.
 * 1938**
 * No major New Deal legislation is passed after this date, due to Roosevelt's weakened political power.
 * The year-long recession makes itself felt: the GNP falls 4.5 percent, and unemployment rises to 19.0 percent.
 * 1939**
 * The United States will begin emerging from the Depression as it borrows and spends $1 billion to build its armed forces. From 1939 to 1941, when the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, U.S. manufacturing will have shot up a phenomenal 50 percent!
 * The Depression is ending worldwide as nations prepare for the coming hostilities.
 * World War II starts with Hitler's invasion of Poland.
 * 1945**
 * Although the war is the largest tragedy in human history, the United States emerges as the world's only economic superpower. Deficit spending has resulted in a national debt 123 percent the size of the GDP. By contrast, in 1994, the $4.7 trillion national debt will be only 70 percent of the GDP!
 * The top tax rate is **91 percent**. It will stay at least 88 percent until 1963, when it is lowered to 70 percent. During this time, America will experience the greatest economic boom it had ever known until that time.