The Great Depression had a number of causes, but the most popularized cause is the crash of the New York Stock Exchange. One of the possible causes is the fact that there had been a decline in population growth. It could be partially due to the excess in production capacity that was caused by the rapid growth in productivity. Which led to an immense rise in unemployment.
The crash of the New York Stock Exchange followed an enormous speculative boom that had gripped the stock exchange in the late 20's. What made it even worse was the fact that a lot of investors were buying stocks on borrowed money. The amount of money that was borrowed was more than the amount of money circulating in the United States during that time period, $8.5 billion.
After the stock market crashed President Hoover cut $160 million in taxes, ordered federal departments to speed up construction projects, and doubled the amount spent on public works.
In my opinion the great depression could have been at least held off, if not stopped, if the government had paid more attention to the economy, and had stepped in when it looked like the economy was in trouble.
Comments
This is very brief overall for having three topics to research.