The+Great+Depression

Page Developed by: SH-OS, KB-SOTH //“ No one can possibly have lived through the **Great Depression** without being scarred by it. No amount of experience since the depression can convince someone who has lived through it that the world is safe economically. ” dmg  // Isaac Asimov quotes The Great Depression happened because the economy crashed. The economy crashed because of the reduction of the price level. This is close to the changes on the national money supply. In other words the value of the US dollar dropped. So, the US money supply fell about one-third, while this happened prices and output rose (probably) making it harder for the common day worker to pay for their food. Causes of the Great Depression has been centered on monetary policy and other things involving the national money supply. Price stability was a big impact on the Great Depression. By allowing prices to drop the Federal Reserve destabilized the US economy, and through the workings of the gold standard, thus causing the Great Depression. (In order to see were I got these ideas go to the link that goes to the speech.)
 * What were the causes of the Great Depression?**

Another reason that the Great Depression happened is that people took out loans and then couldn't pay them back. The US was running out of money. They couldn't make anymore because they needed gold to back it up with (or something like that). So the economy crashed because we didn't have enough money. Prices started to rise, people were laid off, and life wasn't fair, like always. If people use their money wisely we might not have difficulties with the economy crashing and going through another depression, because that would not be good, the recession is bad enough. (See topteacher for more details, I'm pretty sure he knows somewhat about what I'm talking about, if he doesn't then just ask me and I will try to answer the question with the best of my ability.)

Many people blame the Federal Reserve for the Great Depression happening because of the obedience to the flawed real-bills doctrine. The gold standard orthodoxy was also a cause of the depression. This can also be explained by contractionary US monetary policy, but after 1931 a common supply of credit disintermediation was the dominant source. People aren't sure whether the depression was caused by monetary or nonmonetary forces. We still can't be certain about the causes of the Great Depression, but while we have ideas we can be aware of what might have caused ot to happen, and keep on searching for answers, it might help us to get out of this recession today. ~KB-SOTH

Why is this important to history?
The Great Depression was a difficult time for American's. The economy hit an all time low and the amount of homeless people grew immensely. Many adults lost their jobs and were left doing anything they could to support their family. Providing food and clothing for their children was a constant worry for parents that had lost their jobs. This was important to history because it's something that could unfortunately happen again. We can learn how to prevent this from happening again by looking at what caused it in the past. ~SH-OS

This is important to history because it was a difficult time for many people in the United States (not so much as rich people, but more of the people that had trouble weren't rich). If this had never happened the United States might have better technology or more people living in it, or something along that line. If we learn how the depression happened we might be able to figure out what caused the recession that we are going through right now to happen. We could also learn how the depression ended and we might be able to figure out how we can end the recession we are in. ~KB-SOTH

The Great Depression was a very difficult time for almost all Americans. Many lost their homes, their jobs, and their cars. Some families were split up when one of the parents moved to a different state to try to find work. And those lucky enough to have a job constantly worried that they would lose their only source of income to support their family.

There were many causes of the Great Depression. On October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed. Stockholders lost forty billion dollars within the next two months. This led to the Great Depression when, by the end of 1930, America gained back only a small portion of what they had lost. After the stock market crashed, American’s willingness to buy new items went down a noticeable amount. Because of this, the amount of production decreased, therefore decreasing the number of workers needed to produce these items. This was sort of like a circle, because people that lost their jobs could not buy many new things, thus causing even more lost jobs.

Over 9,000 banks failed throughout the 1930’s. Since most people had no insurance for their bank deposits, as the banks failed, they lost all of the money they had saved and deposited into the bank. As other banks failed, existing banks became weary and were not as willing to create and give out new loans. This led to the Great Depression because not only did people lose their savings from banks that had failed, many could not get loans from banks that still existed.

One of the more minor causes of the Great Depression was the Mississippi Valley drought in 1930. This drought was so severe that many people could not pay taxes, loans, or other debts, therefore forcing them to sell their farms to pay these expenses. After the debts were covered with the money from the farms, most people had little to no profit left over. Some people, not only from the Mississippi Valley, even wrote to the government asking for help. One woman, Mrs. W. O. Harris wrote to Mrs. Herbert Hoover asking if she knew anyone that wanted to buy land in the South after her husband died.

These were all situations that, together, led to the Great Depression. There were also other causes and events that triggered the depression, including unequal distribution of wealth, but these were some of the most important ones. In the future, America will hopefully look for the warning signs of the Great Depression and improve economic conditions in order that we might be able to prevent this horrible event from happening again. (SH-OS)



websites included: Link to speech made that states what that person thinks caused the Great Depression, with proof: [] (KB-SOTH)

...The Great Depression: [] (KB-SOTH)

http://americanhistory.about.com/od/greatdepression/tp/greatdepression.htm (SH-OS)

http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/20th/1930s/depression-causes.html (SH-OS)

http://www.geocities.com/capitolhill/senate/6854/greatdep.html (SH-OS)

http://www.amatecon.com/gd/gdcandc.html (SH-OS)