What Caused The Great Depression

The great depression was a very hard time for many people throughout the United States. Cities all over were hit very hard and many people suffered very deeply. The industry was collapsing and over time less and less stuff was being manufactured, the construction business was going into a big decline. Farmers were also having a hard time since most of their crop prices were hit very drastically. Eventually the economy went into a huge depression that left millions of people unemployed and struggling to earn a living. Before the great depression started the United States prospered during president Hoover’s presidency. “The economy was dominant of all global economies” (Moss 181) President Hoover said that “We have reached a higher degree of
“The economy was in good shape, there was no apparent conspiracy and banks had money.” (Moss 183) The depression had multiple causes one was the “unequal distribution of wealth, Average per capita rose 10 percent during the 1920’s but for the wealthiest Americans it rose to 75 percent, the richest one percent of the population owned 60 percent of the nation’s wealth.” “Farmers did not share fully in the expanding consumer economy since they never recovered from the collapse of commodity prices after World
During this time the failure of the banks was very bad, “the banks were mismanaged, high amounts of fraud occurred and they were not even regulated.” (Moss) The psychology of people turned to the worse people were confused and panicked and lost all trust of the economy and the government. People got sick from tuberculosis and typhoid. President Hoover tried to recover the economy using the government, he tried to make as many steps as possible to revive the economy here are some things he tried to do “He met with industrialist and labor leaders to limit production, tried to cut income tax to stimulate demand, lower interest rates on loans to stimulate borrowing, create work projects to employ people. However he failed to resuscitate the economy, “ (Moss) “He did not use federal funds for unemployment relief instead placing that responsibility to ill equipped local governments and charities. The state of NY handed out $2.39 a week, not enough to sustain family also the Houston, relief application available for whites only.”