And the Stock Market Crash
Industries in Trouble Farmers need a Lift Consumers have less money to spend Living on Credit A New President Events leading up to the Stock Market Crash:
Key Industries such as textiles, steel, and railroads barely made a profit. Coal Mining was especially hit-hard because of new competition for new types of energy emerging. Industries in Trouble:
By the 1930's only three sources supplied more than half of the energy that used to come from coal. Building permits declined by 25 percent. Industries in Trouble Cont…
Agriculture suffered the worst more than any other part of the economy during the 1920's. Crops such as wheat and corn (that were in high demand during the war) declined by 50 percent or more at the conclusion of the war. Farmers Need a Lift:
Since incomes fell, consumers and families had less money to spend on goods and services. Consumers have less money to spend:
No, many Americans were purchasing goods on a buy now and pay later arrangement that was called credit. These people on credit were on payment plans (that were usually monthly) that also included interest charges. Living on Credit:
During the 1920's, nearly half of the nations families earned less than $1,200 per year. Families earning twice this much could not afford many of the household products that manufactures produced. Uneven Distribution of Income:
Between the income of the wealthiest 1 percent of the population rose by 75 percent, compared to the 9 percent national average. Uneven Distribution Cont…
Hoover wins the election because he was able to point to years of prosperity under the Republican Party since Smith's opposition to Prohibition, his religion (Roman Catholicism), and his heavy Brooklyn accent helped lose him the election. New President:
Dreams and Riches in the Stock Market Black Tuesday Causes of the Great Depression The Stock Market come crashing down:
Americans rushed to buy stocks and bonds, in a “bull market”- period of rising stock prices. One observer wrote, “It seemed as if all economic law had been suspended and a new era opened up in which success and prosperity could be had without knowledge or Industry.” By 1929, about $4 million Americans (or 3 percent of the nation’s population) owned stock. Dreams and riches of the Stock Market:
Many investors were engaging in Speculation- they bought stocks and bonds on the chance that they might make a quick or large profit, ignoring the risk.. Buying on Margin- paying a small percentage of a stock’s price as a down payment and borrowing the rest. Dreams and riches cont…
October 29, 1929, known as Black Tuesday, the bottom fell out of the stock market. By min-November, investors had lost $30 billion, an amount equal to American spending in World War I. Black Tuesday:
Great Depression- the period from , in which the economy was in severe decline and millions of people were out of work.. Main Causes of the Great Depression: An old and decaying industrial base A crisis in the farm sector The availability of easy credit An unequal distribution of income Causes of the Great Depression:
In 1929, 659 banks shut down. By 1933, nearly 6,000 banks (or one-fourth of the nation’s total) had failed. Also, 85,000 businesses went bankrupt. (Ex: Automobile companies that prospered in the 1920’s.) Financial Collapse
Unemployment went from 3 percent (or 1.6 million workers) to 25 percent (or 13 million workers). One in every four workers did not have a job. Financial Collapse Cont…
"If, with all the advantages I've had, I can't make a living, I'm just no good, I guess." - An unemployed Texas schoolteacher, 1933 "Three or four million heads of households don't turn into tramps and cheats overnight, nor do they lose the habits and standards of a lifetime... They don't drink any more than the rest of us, they don't lie any more, they're no lazier than the rest of us.... An eighth or a tenth of the earning population does not change its character which has been generations in the molding, or, if such a change actually occurs, we can scarcely charge it up to personal sin.“ - Federal relief administrator Harry Hopkins, 1933 Quotes from people that lived during the Great Depression:
The End