Economic Problems of the Great Depression

Following the economic boom of the 1920s, there was a period of economic depression. The United States and its citizens were greatly affected. There were many economic problems that occurred such as unemployment rate rising tremendously and many more. Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt were presidents during that time and dealt with the economic problems. They helped create programs to financially stabilize the country again. The Great Depression ended when the United States entered World War II. The collapse of the stock market in 1929 marked the downfall of America along with the constant dustbowls. Document 3 shows a chart of the stock market crash of 1929 and how it increased the rate of unemployment in the United States. It rose from 2 million to 33 million over a period of four years. Another economic problem that existed during the Great Depression was due to the Dustbowl. As shown in the picture in document 1, shows the abandoned house whose owners have moved to the city in hopes of better jobs. Farmers in the Midwest were affected because there was a lack of rain and nothing was growing. So the number of crops the farmers grew decreased. These problems were great issues to the elected presidents, Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt. In Franklin D. Roosevelt’s First Inaugural Address, he said “there must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments; there must be an end to speculation with other people’s money, and there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency” (Document 4). In this statement, he said his plan was to have the government keep a close eye on everything financially related in the country. Hoover, President after FDR, followed a trickle-down theory- “they reasoned that, if the government legislation protected the wealth of big corporations and the well-to-do, their continued investments would expand the economy and a better life would ‘trickle down’ to workers and consumer in general”