2. The Great Depression took place in the United States, Europe
and in other countries. But the one that took place in the U.S took
place from the year 1929 to about the year 1939. The U.S. Great
Depression was basically an economical slump that happened in
North America. An economical slump is basically when many
things are going wrong with your economy. Like you owe a lot of
money (debt in other words), you need money, or your stock
markets close or go bankrupt. The Great Depression was the
longest and most severe depressions that anyone in the
industrialized Western World had ever experienced. Many people
were affected by this Great Depression. People who owned stock
markets, children, adults, and anyone you can imagine was affected
by this Great Depression. The Great Depression was mainly caused
because of many bad stock markets. Those bad stock markets lost a
lot of money which eventually let into debt. Many people have said
that the Great Depression began by a very catastrophic or terrible
collapse of the stock-market prices on the New York Stock. During
this Great Depression Herbert Hoover was the inaugurated president
in charge. When he was only a few months into his term of
3. presidency the Great Depression had occurred. The Great
Depression was the most catastrophic time in American History so
far. It was the most catastrophic because it caused a lot of damage, it
also put the stock-markets/ economy in trouble, and it just lead to
pure chaos.
The Great Depression was catastrophic because it put the
stock-markets/economy in a tough situation. The start of the
Depression all started with the stock-markets. It all began on the rash
of the stock-markets on “Black Tuesday” on October 29, 1929. On
that day the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by almost 23 percent.
The market also lost between eight billion and nine billion in value.
On October 29, in just one day, the stock-market’s frantic traders
sold off 16,400,000 shares of stocks. At the end of the year the
government determined the investors in the market had lost about
$40 billion dollars. There was also a 89 percent decline in the stock
prices. Because of that many people were in great debt. They lost a
lost a big amount of money. The stock-market continued to decline
4. unemployment rose and the wages, the pay, fell for those that
worked. As the stock-markets continued to decline banks started to
fail. Many banks were forced into insolvency, by 1933, 11,000 of
the U.S.’s 25,000 banks failed. Eventually the failure of the many
banks combined with loss of confidence in the economy led to
reduced levels of spending and demanding. Because of that
millions of people lost all their savings suddenly.
To see the damage the stock-markets really caused lets look
at the Dow stock before the depression and after. Before the
depression the Dow stock’s average was better. Many investors
would purchase shares because they liked the facts that the stocks
were thought to be extremely safe. They thought that because of
the economic boom that occurred at the time. Many investors
bought stocks on margin which means that they borrow the stock
for the purpose of gaining any financial help or leverage. It seemed
like a pretty good deal because for every dollar that was invested
the margin user would borrow nine dollars worth of stock. So the
ratio was 1:9. So if the stock went up even one percent the investor
would make ten percent. It can also work the other way around.
That means that it can add to minor losses as well. So that means if
5. the stock drops a lot then a margin holder could lose all of their
investment and most likely owe money to their broker. So back to
the Dow stock. From 1921 to 1929 the Dow stock went from 60 to
400 creating new millionaires. The stock trading became America’s
favorite pastime . The investors mortgage their houses and they
foolishly invested in their life savings into popular stocks like Ford
and RCA. They did this because they never thought that a crash
was even possible. They always thought that the stock markets
“went up”.
The stock-markets crashed because The federal Reserve
raised interest rates in attempts to cool down the overheated
economy and stock market. ON Thursday October 24, 1929 panic
occurred as the investors began to realize that the stock boom was
actually an “over-inflated speculative bubble” . Many margin
investors were being destroyed as the large number of stock
investors tried to reduce their shares to the point where they can’t
use them any more. Millions of millionaire margin investors went
immediately bankrupt On October 28 and 29. The Dow stock sank
from 400 to 145 during November. And in a three days over five
billion worth of market capitalization had been erased from the
6. stocks that were trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Then
by the end of 1929 stock markets crashed and a 16 billion dollars
worth of market was lost from the New York Stock Exchange.
In 19 32 and 1933 banks and investors hit rock bottom.
They went down about 80 percent from their high in the 1920s.
This had very sharp effects on the economy. The demand for goods
declined a lot because people felt poor because of their losses in the
stock market. Any new investments couldn’t be financed or be
made through the sale of stock because no one would buy the new
stocks . Well its pretty reasonable. They didn’t want the same thing
to happen. And they didn’t want to fall more into debt.
So the stock markets really had an effect on the people.
People went bankrupt. People lost everything they saved. People
lost everything fast. And some people even stayed in debt. The
Great Depression was very catastrophic because it’s stock-markets
really did a number on people and their families.
7. The Great Depression was also a catastrophic event in
History because it cut out a lot of people from working . There
were many unemployment cuts done because of the stock-market.
While the stock-market kept on rising unemployment rates were
rising. Millions of people lost their jobs. Many farmers and
businesses were left bankrupted. As the output dropped almost
half the population in the U.S was in desperate circumstances. The
farmers that were unemployed and regular farmers had it a little
hard because they already had a little depression of their own
before. Because the collapse of food prices with the loss of export
markets after World War One. Also because of the years of drought
that were marked with huge dust storms the would blacken the
skies at noon and scoured the land of topsoil. Most city people lost
their houses. But the farmers has it rougher because they lost their
house, their land, and their equipment to foreclosure. The reason
why they lost their houses was because they didn’t have that much
money. So they couldn’t pay the rent. And since some owed money
the people who had invested them into mortgage lost everything.
8. While this was affecting the people President Herbert
Hoover was resisting the calls from Congress, Governors, and
Mayors as the jobless population was growing. Those calls from
the Congress, Governors, and Mayors were to fight unemployment
by financing public service jobs. He encourage these types of jobs,
but said that it was up to the states and local governments to pay for
them. Which would cause little bit of more strain on the people.
By the year 1932 the unemployment rate was so high it
went past 20 percent. Since that happened thousands of banks and
business were no good anymore, they failed. Millions of people
were homeless and with no job. And many woman and men came
back “home” with sad faces. Why? Because they would come back
from fruitless job hunts. Which means they went out to get a job,
but they weren’t accepted to any. They would get even more sad
when they had padlocks on their homes. And their families and
belongings were left out on the streets.
Many people were so desperate to find a job. They would
go from town to town searching for “non-existent” jobs. They
9. Were desperate to find a job because they needed one. They needed
money to buy necessities. There were more people that lived at the
edge of the cities in shantytowns their residents called Hooverville.
Many people were affected by this. Mostly everyone was
homeless and on the streets. The Great Depression is the most
catastrophic event that has ever happen. Because people lost their
jobs. And when they lost their jobs they lost their homes since they
couldn't pay the rent. Then when they lost their home they were
homeless and living on the streets.
There really wasn’t any accomplishments made in the time
of the Great Depression. All that happened was damage. There is
one last key point that I have that shows why the Great depression
is the most catastrophic event that has happen to the United States
so far. That one reason is the damage. This Great Depression made
a lot of damage. As you can tell by the paragraphs before, the Great
depression made many people suffer. All the damage that was made
will never be undone. Those people will know that pain for the rest
of their lives.
10. There was so much damage made. One of the damages
was that people were bankrupt. They had no choice. They couldn’t
change the stock market because they didn’t know it was coming.
They only thought that the market could go up. So they went
bankrupt. Some even owed debt. Since they didn’t have any money
another damage was made. People lost their homes. They came
back to padlocked houses and their things outside. They had to be
homeless unless they had the money or a job. They had to stay on
the streets and live on the streets. The farmers had a little more than
just the house taken away. They got their land, house, and
equipment taken away by foreclosure.
Another Damage they had was that they lost jobs. Many
people were getting cut from their job. Many people would go from
town to town looking for jobs, but they were sometimes
unsuccessful. Many people went to find job and when the day was
over they had an unsuccessful luck. They couldn’t find a job for
11. themselves. So when they didn’t have jobs they couldn’t get the
money. So if they didn’t have the money they couldn’t keep the
house. They also couldn’t get food.
Many people would starve to death since they couldn’t get
any food at all. Many people would go digging through the trash
cans and dumps for food. The children would most likely get
swelled stomachs. Many people would die since they couldn’t take
it anymore. That is another of the damages that the Great
Depression caused.
Death. Many people died of hunger. Many people would die
probably because they fight over food or something. Many people
would suicide than the even be like that. Many people would
suicide themselves from the building like banks. Woman, Men, and
Children of all ages would die every single day of hunger or of
many other reasons.
Another damage that the Great Depression caused was
12. the shutting down of buildings. Many factories would shut down,
lock their gates, shops would be shut forever, and most of the
remaining businesses would have a very hard time coming
through. The local government had a lot of difficulty collecting the
taxes to keep the services going.
Farmers also got some damage done to them. Farm prices
dropped down to very low records and the families would try to
keep out foreclosure. Since people were losing their jobs by the end
of the ten years about 4,340,000 American were jobless or out of
work. Then more than eight million were on the streets a year later.
The Great Depression made people suffer a lot. More than anyone
can imagine. The Great Depression is the most catastrophic event
to take place because it caused damages that could not be repaired
easily. They would take time to repair. It seems that the Great
Depression only accomplished making damage and trouble.
13. So in conclusion, the Great Depression was the most
catastrophic event that has ever happen in U.S. History so far. My
three key points that can prove this are the damages it caused, the
stock-market values/rates, and also unemployment. The stock-
market trade that occurred in the Great Depression was the main
start of the Great Depression. It was the origin of the problem.
There are many things to discover about the Great Depression. You
can discover the stock-market and how it works. The people who
were in this event discovered how the stock-market actually works.
They discovered how it is to live the life of a homeless person. I
personally believe that the Great Depression is unique. Why?
Because nothing like it has ever been such a big crisis every
before to go global. The Great Depression is the most fascinating
historical event to happen to the U.S. so far that I have learned
about. The Great Depression helps you learn about new things, and
it help you learn about how foolish people can be and how greedy
they can get. I honestly think that the Great Depression caused
nothing but trouble, but it taught people a good lesson.
14. It taught people that you can’t be foolish and just act on your own
accord. Be happy with what you have now. Don’t be too greedy
that you spend all your money on something that might hurt you
later. It also teaches me that people really didn’t think
thoroughly before. I think that the Great Depression should be
taught to everyone to show how foolish one can be because of
money and what the consequences might be later on.
