Causes of Great Depression
1. One of the major causes of the Great Depression was the Stock Market crashing in 1929. The Stock Market crashed on Tuesday, October 29, 1929, known as “Black Tuesday.” After a couple of months of the Stock Market crash, stockholders lost around $40 billion dollars, which caused a huge money problem. The Stock Market lost a lot during this crash, but slowly started gaining some back after 1930. It was not enough to hold up America, so we went into the Great Depression, which was a very rough time period.
2. Bank Failure is another cause of the Great Depression starting. Over 9,000 banks in the 1930’s had to close because of business failures of some sort. Bank deposited were so unsecure, people lost out on there savings from the bank. Having anything to do with a bank in the 1930’s was your choice, but it was either gain or most likely losing your money you put in. Let alone the stock market lost a great deal of money, but the banks made it even worse.
3. Drought Conditions weren’t a huge cause of the Great Depression, but it was involved. This drought started in the 1930 near the Mississippi Valley. Farmers weren’t making money because these droughts ruined there crops, so they were unable to grow and sell there crops. Since they couldn’t grow crops and make money, they were unable to pay there taxes or other debts they owed. They had no other choice but to sell their farms to themselves for no money. This was called “Dust Bowl.”
4. The American Economic Policy with Europe tried to help all the problems starting after the stock market crashed, but it only made it worse. The government made a new tariff called the “Smoot-Hawley Tariff.” This tariff was to charge higher taxing on imports, which would hopefully sooner or later make less trade between America and foreign countries.
5. Reduction in Purchasing Across the Board came into affect when the stock market crashed and no one had any money. People started buying less goods and products because they had no money after the crash. People later lost there jobs, because there was no money to pay them with. The amount of production of products was reduced and the workforce slowed down. Unemployment rate rose way high over 25%, which even caused less spending on products. People had little or no money to buy anything.
Causes for the Stock Market Crash of 1929
1. Marrgin Calls was one of the main causes of the Stock Market Crashing of 1929. A margin is defined as a “cash” loan to an investor so he/she can buy more quantity of stock then they could ever afford. So people were buying these over priced items which they couldn’t afford so they go and borrow money from these brokers, which borrowed money from the bank. The brokers could never pay back the money to the bank, which caused a huge problem leading to the Stock Market crash.
2. Agricultural Recession was involved in the crashing of the Stock Marketin a way. Small farmers were unable to continue running their business because they couldn’t compete with the new economic climate that was on their farm. Newer technology was coming out, and was increasing the supply, but the demand for food was quite short since people were losing there money. So pricing in food dropped, and the farmer’s incomes dropped right with it. Farmer’s lost their jobs, and it was difficult for them to find a job anywhere else in the economy they were living in.
3. Inequality was another cause that people don’t really consider a cause but it is involved. People’s salaries were low and barely made $2,000 a year to support there family with food, shelter, and clothing. People had no wealth, so they could never afford high food prices.
Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowls or also known as the "Dirty Thirties" was a time period of great dust storms causing major destruction to agricultual property, American and Canadian Lands between a six year period of 1930-1936. The Dust Bowl was mainly caused by farmers not properly maintaining there farm land as needed along with the severe drought. Farmers did excessive farming, but didn't do crop rotation, fallow fields, cover crops, or any other idea to help prevent so much wind erosion. Deep plowing the Great Plains kept the ground full of moisture so during the droughts and high winds, the dirt would not rise. Soil was not kept into place during the drought of the 1930's. All the dust picked up in the high winds and blew eastward and southward in large dust bowl clouds. Most the soil ended up in the Atlantic Ocean. The clouds were so dark and big at times it reached from New York to Washington D.C. The dust storms were called "Black Blizzards" or "Black Rollers." They were called that because you could barely see a few feet in front of you while in the storm. The Dust Bowl left a huge impact causing 100,000,000 acres to be full of dust. Mostly in Texas, Oklahoma, and parts of New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas. Farm land was ruined by these dust storms, and were unable to farm on them again. People had to leave there homes because they were ruined and destroyed. Families moved to the outer states where there were no destruction of the Dust Bowl. There people who migrated had no land to own and how to work picking fruit on farms for starvation wages.
My Input
I think that the main cause of the Great Depression and Stock Market Crash of 1929 was all because of money problems. One the banks were loaning money to people who would never pay them back which would put them in debit. The prices for food was outrageous, which people coulnd't afford with little money they made each year. If they would have just lowered the food prices, and the banks not let so many people loan they would have been better. And the Dust Bowls are just crazy! I can't believe that would happen from not taking care of your farming land properly. I couldn't imagine living in this time period with all this dust you had to breathe in. I hope this never happens again in the United States while im living!
Comments
Very well done Taylor!