Final Project

Lauren Roediger
The Great
Depression
The great depression began in 1929
and was the longest and most
severe downturn in economic
history. Industrial productions and
prices took a steep downfall. Mass
unemployment and banking failure
was hurting the economy very badly
and causing panic. Lastly there was
a sharp increase in homelessness
and poverty.
What were the
causes?
There were four factors that played a
huge role in the Great depression.
The first one was the stock market
crash of 1929. It shattered confidence
in the American economy and large
reductions of investing and spending.
The second reason was the banking
panics causing many banks to fail and
decreasing the pool of money for
loans. The third and fourth reason is
the gold standard causing banks to
raise interest rates and then the
Smoot-Hawley Terrif act imposing
steep tariffs on goods.
How did it effect the economy
then?
In the United States, where the
Depression was generally worst,
industrial production between 1929
and 1933 fell by nearly 47%, GDP
declined by 30%, and
unemployment reached more than
20%. Due to banking panics, about
20% of banks in 1930 had failed by
1933.
How did the United
States recover?
The abandonment of the gold
standard allowed some countries to
increase their money supplies.
Expansion in the form of increased
government spending on jobs and
other social welfare programs
noticeably stimulated production by
increasing demand. The United
States increased military spending
in the years before the country’s
entry into World War II to reduce
unemployment to below its pre-
Depression level.
When did it end?
The Great Depression was
technically over by 1933, meaning
that by then their economies had
started to recover. Most did not
experience full recovery until the
late 1930s or early 1940s. The
United States is generally thought
to have fully recovered from the
Great Depression by about 1939.