I Intro-
In 1929 the most tremendous failure in the US economy occurred, causing many Americans to lose their jobs, homes, possessions and their savings. It took the government quite a while, but eventually America was brought back to economic stability after 3 presidential terms, tons of money spent by government and an abundance of preventative bills and organizations designed to aid US citizens in regaining their money and provide work for people after massive, widespread joblessness.
In 1929 the most tremendous failure in the US economy occurred, causing many Americans to lose their jobs, homes, possessions and their savings. It took the government quite a while, but eventually America was brought back to economic stability after 3 presidential terms, tons of money spent by government and an abundance of preventative bills and organizations designed to aid US citizens in regaining their money and provide work for people after massive, widespread joblessness.
II Causes-
A. over speculation (Define, how important)-Lots of people invested their money in lots of stocks in hopes that the stock prices would continue to rise. Investments were made not in anticipation of the companies future but as a short-term gamble to make easy money, this happened because of the really good economy and stock prices, people in the 1920's were very confident in their investments because of The long bull run so tons of people invested tons of money right and left. Figuratively speaking America put all their poker chips into the middle. Then the economy crashed and America lost all their chips.
B. Govt Policy-When the government lent money to the banks in order to help them stay open because the banks all invested in the stocks and lost money, the banks invested with speculation that they'd make more money back but when the market crashed everybody came and got their money so the banks were left with huge debts to pay and no money to pay it with.
C. Unstable Econ-Stock market crashed, Tons of people lost their jobs and became poor, with no money to spend, the demand for products of all sorts dropped. causing economy to plummet.
1. uneven prosperity-since everybody lost so much money, nobody could afford to buy things slowing production so factory workers all lost their jobs and became poor as the rich factory owners did not lose any money because they didn't have to pay their workers.
2. overproduction-As demand for products basically came to a stop, factories kept making things people couldn't buy causing factory workers to lose jobs.
3. worker issues / farm issues-overproduction caused widespread job loss, Farmers in the midwest were hit by dust bowl that killed all their crops and ruined their fields/soil, causing massive drop in farming and making many farmers homeless.
III Effects
A. Poverty- Tons of people had debt but couldn't afford to pay their mortgages and tons of people lost their homes and possessions and became hobos.
B. Society-everybody became poor or at least financially unstable, lots of people became hobos and lived in Hoovervilles, lots of people turned towards entertainment for a pastime, economy was very bad, many people were looking for work.
C. World-The US couldn't continue production of exports to foreign countries, which negatively affected their economy also creating debt to other countries who wanted imports, pretty much all countries receiving US imports were in debt.
IV Solutions-
A. Hoover-Republican who was not favored by majority of people because he was blamed for not fixing the depression when he said he would, he did kinda try though.
1. Volunteerism- President Hoover came up with and funded programs where people volunteered to help out other people in many different ways like providing charity items or helping in a soup kitchen.
2. Public Works-President Hoover funded projects for construction that gave people jobs, taxes were raised to help funding which financially hurt some people.
3. Hawley Smoot-The tarriffs were raised a ton to eliminate foreign production competition also foreign imports and exports came to a slow.
4. RFC=Reconstruction Finance Co. gave loans to help fund railroads and banks etc. This didn't really help.
B. Roosevelt-Elected president during depression, created the new deal
1. new deal-FDR's idea to end the depression consisted of a ton of different organizations that helped aid people and the economy in different ways
a alphabet soup-name for the organizations included in the new deal.
example- CCC(Civilianconservationcorp.)- used to find tons of young people to put to work
building stuff and helping enviroment.
example-CWA(civilworksadmin)- gave people primarily construction jobs
example-NRA(nationalrecoveryagency) regulated industry production
example-TVA(Tennesseevalleyauthority) built power plants and dams
b. Criticsim?- conservatives thought FDR's policies were too much, liberals though they weren't doing enough.
2. 2nd new deal-when FDR was re-elected he made more reforms to help economy and people
a-NLRB(nationallaborrelationsboard) made in order to create more unions
b-WPA(worksprogressadministration) also did construction that gave people jobs.
c-CIO(committeeforindustrialorganization)provided assistance to industrial unions
V. Criticicism-many americans didn't think the government had enough funding
B. Political Criticism- Many democrats and bankers thought the government gave to much support and money away.
A. Conservatives- Were afraid that the development of a lot of government policies/acts would develop a socialist government.wanted state government to help.
B. Liberals-wanted federal government to do more
Ex.were not concerned about possible socialism
ex.wanted more federal widespread reforms
VI Effectiveness
A. Changes in US- FDR altered his policies in order to provide more federal assistance
B. Unions-became more powerful and adjusted to provide for people more.
C. Culture- US citizens eventually became financially responsible
VII Conclusion-
The Great Depression had a tremendous impact on America, President Hoover's attempts to fix the economy did not prevail but were not without minor success mostly regarding Hoovers public works or Volunteerism ideas, when FDR was elected he was more succesful in his two terms, being responsible for the New deal and the 2nd New deal, FDR gave work to many people and also passed many bills regulating certain economic actions, those of which were part of the reason why the depression occurred. The depression was a historical event that attributed to the knowledge now known and used to prevent another economic failure.
The Great Depression had a tremendous impact on America, President Hoover's attempts to fix the economy did not prevail but were not without minor success mostly regarding Hoovers public works or Volunteerism ideas, when FDR was elected he was more succesful in his two terms, being responsible for the New deal and the 2nd New deal, FDR gave work to many people and also passed many bills regulating certain economic actions, those of which were part of the reason why the depression occurred. The depression was a historical event that attributed to the knowledge now known and used to prevent another economic failure.
