1. The Coming of the Great Depression
No one factor caused the Great Depression.
Suite of factors building up throughout the 1920s
The Stock Market Crash was the “last straw,” not the sole cause

2. Factors Leading to the Depression
Laissez faire Politics dominate the 1920s
Calvin Coolidge
Warren G. Harding
Herbert Hoover
“the business of the country is business”

3. Factors Leading to the Depression
Overproduction and Underconsumption
Credit, debt, and “installment” buying
Ponzi (pyramid) schemes and other fraudulent deals
The Banking Crisis
The Dust Bowl
The Stock Market Crash

4. The Dust Bowl

5. The Dust Bowl

6. The Dust Bowl

7. Rural Poverty
Migration West

9. “Migrant Mother”

10. Urban Poverty

11. Hoover’s Reactions “voluntary cooperation”
Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC)
Hawley-Smoot Tariff
The Dawes Plan
Goal: $ invested into country, boosting economy
Reality: $ used to repay debts without investment into economy; sterile capital

12. The Bonus March
WWI Veterans, having lost everything, petitioned Congress for the early payment of their WWI bonuses.

13. The Bonus Army

14. “Hooverville” at Anacostia flats

16. When Congress adjourned for the year without granting the bonuses, Hoover ordered the D.C. police to evict the veterans
The D.C. police refused, and Hoover ultimately called out the U.S. Army to remove the Bonus Marchers

19. While Hoover took full responsibility and apologized, it was the final straw for his chances at re-election.