1. An Economic View of the Great Depression
AIM: What were the Social, Economic, and Political causes & Effects of the Great Depression?
Do Now: Quiz – 5-7 Minutes
Mr. BETA –

2. What makes a Depression Great?
Recession: When your neighbor loses his or her job.
Depression: When you lose your job.

3. Why study the Great Depression?
Worst economic disaster of the 20th century.
Cause or causes are still debated.
A defining event, especially for the government’s involvement in the economy.

4. Some Concepts
Gross Domestic Product (GDP): Comprehensive measure of the nation’s output of final goods and services.
Recession: Sustained decline in real GDP (approximately two quarters – 6 months). Officially declared by Government
Depression: Very severe recession.
Inflation: A sustained increase in the general price level (often calculated in terms of the Consumer Price Index (CPI)).
Deflation: A sustained decrease in the general price level.

5. How Great was the Great Depression?
GDP fell 29% from 1929 to 1933.
Unemployment increased to 25% of labor force.
Consumer prices fell 25%; wholesale prices 32%.
Some 7000 banks failed.

7. STRUCTURE OF AMERICAN SOCIETY DISINTEGRATES
Factories and mines close
Banks are worthless
Consumer buying comes to a standstill

8. 1932 – AMERICAN DREAMS ARE SHATTERED
14 million Americans are jobless (almost 1/3 the workforce)
Banks foreclose on houses and farms
No food, no clothes, no jobs
Recycled lifestyle

10. Collapse of world trade – globalization in reverse Monetary collapse
Why Did It Happen? Some Suggested Causes
The stock market crash – end of the party
Collapse of world trade – globalization in reverse
Monetary collapse
Bank Failures

11. Bonus Army WWI veterans who were promised a $ bonus in 1945,
Veterans want it NOW (1932), Why?
Veterans go to Washington and “camp out”
Set up camps known as “Hoovervilles”
Hoover sends in Army (Eisenhower, MacArthur), used tear gas, machine guns, and burned the camps down

12. Hooverville in Seatle, WA

13. Hooverville in Central Park

14. Family walking 30 miles to visit other family members

15. Homeless family walking down a road during The Great Depression

16. Sharecropper wife & children during The Great Depression

17. Loss of farms during The Great Depression

18. Auctioning off a farm during The Great Depression