2. what was it?
• “For most Americans, at most times in American history, the economy has
provided real opportunity for real individual success.
But what would you do if the economy suddenly stopped providing that
opportunity? If it no longer seemed to matter how hard you worked, how
smart you were, how responsibly you took care of your money? If the system
just stopped working, seemingly dooming you to a life of poverty through no
fault of your own?
Would you blame yourself?
Would you work harder, striving to prosper, against all odds, within the
failing system?
Or would you try to change the system itself? And if so, what would you try
to change it into?”1
1. Shmoop Editorial Team, "The Great Depression, "Shmoop University, Inc., 11 November
2008, http://www.shmoop.com/great-depression/ (accessed November 28, 2010)
3. How Could This Happen?
By the test you will be able to answer:
• Why did the stock market crash?
• Why was the economy so bad for so long?
• How did it affect people?
• How did the government try to stop it?
• Did it work?
• What made the economy get better again?
• Could this happen again? Are we headed to another
Depression?
6. Unemployment:
• Topped out at
1933 25%
• Around 10%
Now looking for work
• Around 17% total
7. Stock market
• Stock: A small piece of a company that is bought
and sold
• Stock market: A place where stocks and bonds
are “traded” (bought and sold)
• Goal is to buy the stock, hold on to it for a time,
and sell it for more than you paid
8. Risks of the Market
• Stocks go up and down
Holiday
Short-term
shopping
iPads go investors
season
on sale selling
iPad
announced
Stock price
of Apple this
year
10. Causes
1. Speculation: Buying stock with the plan to sell it
again quickly when the market rises
2. Buying on margin: Borrowing money to buy
stocks
Example: I make a down payment of $5 for a
$50 share, you promise to pay back the rest
when you sell the stock
I can buy $1,000 worth of stock for only
$100. If stock crashes, I still owe $900
11. causes
3. Using too much credit: Booming economy,
advertising, easy loans and installment plans
made people borrow more than they could pay
back
4. Overproduction: Too much stuff to sell, no one
to buy it
5. Unequal distribution of wealth: Rich people got
richer but workers’ wages didn’t rise, so they
couldn’t buy the stuff being made
12. causes
6. Government policies: No regulation of the stock
market
7. Problems in European economy impacted the
U.S.
8. Weak farm economy: production too high, prices
too low, debt too much
13. But most of all..
• Overconfidence: Investors felt like if they bought
stocks they couldn’t lose.
They were wrong.
14. Beginnings of the
Depression
• Stock market crash triggered chain of events
• Bank failures: Over 9,000 banks closed or went
bankrupt 1930-1933
• Shrank the money supply and led to deflation
• Low prices mean low profits
• Production drops
• People are laid off
• 53% people are “underemployed”
17. Relief?
• No welfare system to help with food, rent,
clothing, medical care, etc.
• Families turned to state-and-local relief systems
and charity organizations
• Agencies not set up to deal with it—only “fringes”
of society, extremely poor
• Many went without help
• Some die of starvation
18. Hoover’s response
• 1st tried to restore confidence
• Voluntary cooperation: Hoover
invited business, labor and
agricultural leaders to White House.
Wanted them to cooperate for recovery. No
striking and no laying off or cutting production
• Didn’t work
19. Hoover’s philosophy
• "I do not believe that the
power and duty of the
General Government ought
to be extended to the relief
of individual suffering. . . .
The lesson should be
constantly enforced that
though the people support
the Government the
Government should not
support the people."
(1930)
20. Self reliance or
government aid?
• Hoover’s ideas about self-reliance shaped his
policies on rebuilding the economy and providing
relief
• Felt that charities and religious organization
should provide relief on voluntary basis
• He tried to stimulate the economy with public
construction projects, but they were not enough
21. Help for farmers
• Agricultural Marketing Act (1929): first major
government program to help maintain crop prices
• Hawley-Smoot Tariff (1930): Tariff on 75
imported farm products gave protection to
American farmers (later backfired)
22. Hoover loses support
• Public approval very low; Democrats win many
Congressional seats in 1930 midterm elections
• Americans blame Hoover for the crisis
• Name shantytowns where unemployed live
“Hoovervilles”
23. International economic
collapse
• Spring of 1931: Europeans banks start failing
without U.S. lending them money
• Pushed American economy even lower
24. RFC
• Reconstruction and Finance Corporation (1932):
Federal program to provide loans to troubled
banks, railroads and other business. First to
operate on a large scale
• Still not enough
25. Bonus Army, 1932
• Or “Bonus Expeditionary
Force”
• 200,000 WWI veterans
• Demand early payment
of the $1,000 bonus
promised to them
• Marched on Washington,
camped out and refused to leave
26. Hoover calls in troops
• Hoover calls in Gen. McArthur to lead calvary, an
infantry regiment and 6 tanks to descend on their
camps
• Forcibly removes men, breaks up protest
• Last straw for public support of Hoover
• No way he’ll win the next election
27.
28. The New Deal
• FDR (Franklin Delano Roosevelt)
elected by a landslide in 1932
• People wanted change from
Hoover’s laissez-faire policies
29. New deal philosophy
• Experiment to find solutions
• 3 R’s: Relief for the unemployed
Recovery for businesses
Reform of economic institutions
(regulations)
30. First 100 days
• 100 day session
• Passed every bill FDR proposed
• More laws than any Congress in history
• Bank holiday
• Ended prohibition
31. Fireside chats
• Radio broadcasts explaining the recovery policies
directly to the people
32. First new deal 1933- 1935
• Focused on relief for unemployed
• Turned federal government into an employer
33. New Deal Programs
• Civilian Conservation Corps: Employed young men
to work on federal land
• Tennessee Valley Authority: Hired men to build
dams for irrigation and cheap electricity
• Works Progress Association: Hired men to build
schools, parks, bridges, roads, etc. Also hired
artists and many others to keep them employed
46. Direct assistance
• Social Security Act: monthly payments to elderly,
disabled and dependent children. Also
unemployment insurance
• Shift in thinking about the role of government
47. Critics of the new deal
• Liberals: not enough help for the poor, helped
businesses too much
• Conservatives: gave government too much power,
bordered on communism, didn’t want deficit
spending
48. opponents
• Father Charles Coughlin: wanted to inflate
currency and nationalize all banks
• Dr. Francis Townsend (Townsend Plan): 2% of
federal sales tax pay for $200/month for retired
people
• Huey Long: Senator from Louisiana, give everyone
a large monthly income by heavily taxing the rich;
radical
