The Great Depression Causes And Effects

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The Great Depression represents one of the darkest periods in American economic history. Most people think the Great Depression started in October 1929, with the famous Black Tuesday stock market crash, but economists and historians point to an economic downturn which took hold in early 1929. The stock market crash led to unprecedented runs on banks, and by 1933, more than 11,000 of the nation’s 25,000 banks had failed.

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal is largely credited with bringing America out of the Great Depression by providing jobs and relief, but in truth, the country didn’t fully recover until 1941, when munitions and ammunition factories geared up for World War II.

That means the Great Depression timeline spanned approximately twelve years, with unemployment reaching its highest point in 1933, when 25% of American workers were idle. Photos of the Great Depression depict harsh conditions, for men, women, and children.

From 1930-1936, American farmers struggled with conditions of the Dust Bowl, a drought that affected more than a million acres of farmland, and the result was mass migrations of people from rural lands to urban areas.

As we face tough economic times today and economic stimulus packages are being introduced right and left, it’s interesting to look at then and now Great Depression comparisons.

Read on…because the answers to our economic future may very well already have been forged in the past!