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How Did The Great Depression Affect The Economy

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How Did The Great Depression Affect The Economy
Introduction

Like us, many of you had a loved one that lived during the Great Depression. Many of us have heard stories from our parents or grandparents of the horrific times of the depression; stories that told us how hard it was to find a job, put food on the table, and to provide shelter for the family. Learning how to live without things was a battle all by itself. Hearing the stories made me grateful to be born in a different era. However, each era has it 's own battles to fight that will change the direction of the economy and maybe the world.

Many people feel that we are in a depression. Unemployment rising, business closing its doors, and poverty in the United States on a rise, would make you think that we are in a depression. However,
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During World War 1, the government subsidized farms and paid higher prices for what and other grains. Because the government was feeding the US and Europe, they encouraged farmers to buy more land, invest in modern methods, and to produce more food. However, when the war was over, the US stopped helping farmers. During the war, the government paid $2 a bushel for wheat, but by 1920, wheat prices fell as low as 67 cents a bushel. Farmers fell into debt; farm prices and food prices tumbled. The federal government left American farmers in the cold.

The problem with having large concentrations of wealth and dependence upon two industries is the economy relies on those industries to expand, grow, and invest in order to prosper. At the time, the main problem with the automotive and radio industries was that they could not expand because people could and would only buy so many cars and radios. When those industries went down, they took the American economy with
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Hopeful investors continued to flock the market. Then on Monday October 21, 1929, prices started to fall quickly. The volume was so high that the ticker fell behind. Finally, investors were afraid! Knowing that prices were falling but because the ticker was behind, they could not tell how far they had fallen, so they started to sell quickly. This caused the collapse to happen faster. The market stabilized for a few days, and then on Monday October 28, 1929 prices started dropping again. By the end of the day, the market had fallen 13%. On Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, 16.4 million shares were

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