The Great Depression

Background First event: The Crash of 1929 Prior to the crash: bull market Afterward: bear market Investors lost more money at the end of 1929 ($30 billion) than the United States had spent to fight World War I

The Banking Crisis Failure of the stock market led people to question whether or not their money was safe in banks Bank runs. Everywhere. By 1933, one in every five banks that had been in business in 1930 had gone out of business

More Economic Problems Overproduction Underconsumption Widening wealth gap Increasing personal debt Agricultural price decline Rising unemployment: 3% in 1929; 25% in 1933

As If That Wasn’t Bad Enough The Dust Bowl is a thing Roughly 100 million acres of what had been the most fertile land in America turns to desert Millions of farmers lose their land… and livelihood Many head for California

The Dust Bowl in Video

More Dust Bowl Pictures

The Grapes of Wrath Written in 1939 by John Steinbeck Story of the Joad family, who lose their land in Oklahoma and head west for California Many references to the Bible Highly controversial: painted capitalism as greedy

The Human Impact People without jobs couldn’t earn money to buy food, etc. Lack of employment was also psychologically damaging, especially for men Too proud to accept help Many people “hustled” however they could

Hoover Ignores the Problem President Hoover did not believe it was the job of the government to fix the economy Depended on private charity to fix things Al Capone opened a soup kitchen in Chicago Some local and state governments tried to help, but it wasn’t much

Summary The Crash of 1929 was the beginning of the Great Depression Numerous bank runs, underconsumption, and rising unemployment (up to 25%) hurt the economy severely The Dust Bowl affected millions of people and wiped out 100 million acres of farmland, inspiring John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath Despite the scale of suffering, President Hoover refused to commit federal government money to help alleviate the suffering, relying instead on private charity

Causes of the Great Depression