1. The Great Depression Begins

2. Republican/Conservative Ascendancy
Warren Harding
“A Return to Normalcy”
Calvin Coolidge
“The Business of America
is Business”

3. Election of 1928 Herbert Hoover- elected president in ’28.
Self-made millionaire.
Worked in Harding and Coolidge govt.
Continues conservative policies.
Great administrator, poor politician.

4. What should government’s role be?

5. How was the economy doing in the Roaring Twenties?
Wages were higher.
Working hours shorter.
Unemployment was low.
Businesses turned in record profits each year.
Stock prices soared to record highs.
America became the richest nation in the world.
But…..

6. There were Warning Signs…
Uneven prosperity
Buying on Credit
Playing the stock market:
Speculation
Buying on margin
Overproduction
Farmers’ Depression begins in 1919

7. The Stock Market Crashes
After the Dow Jones Industrial Average peaked at 381 in September, stock prices began to fall on October 24, 1929…
By the end of the November 1929, $25 billion in stock value had been lost.

9. How did people lose millions in the Great Crash?
Stock prices—September 3rd, 1929
Radio Corporation of America (RCA): 505
Montgomery Ward: 466
Stock prices—November 13th, 1929
Radio Corporation of America (RCA): 28
Montgomery Ward: 49

11. The Stock Market Crash

12. The Crash (Eventually) Effects Millions
Great Depression: economic decline that lasted from
Ripple Effect:
Workers: 12 million people jobless by ’32.
Banks Close: unpaid farm loans ruined rural banks; city banks out of cash.
Impact on the World: U.S. investments in other countries stop.

13. ‘BANK RUNS’: American Union Bank, New York City (1931)

14. Bank Failures in the Great Depression

15. What gives money its value?

17. American Legion Employment Bureau,
Los Angeles (1930)

18. Major Causes of the Great Depression
Stock Market Crash
Overproduction on farms and in factories
WWI
Speculation and Installment Buying
Drought in the Midwest
Federal Reserve Policies: “tight” money supply & interest rate flux.
Hawley-Smoot Tariff

22. Dust Storm approaching Washington, DC, March 21, 1935.

23. The Great Depression Begins

24. Hoover Gets the Blame “Hoover Flags”: out-turned pockets
“Hoovervilles”: shanty-town villages for homeless
“Hoover Blankets”: newspapers that people covered up with

28. What was Hoover’s plan to help?
Believed it was a ‘state’ and ‘local’ problem, not a ‘federal’ one.
Believed that “handouts” would crush the American spirit.
Reconstruction Finance Corporation-- loans to banks and businesses.
Public Works Projects— men hired to build roads, bridges, dams, etc.
Hawley-Smoot Tariff– high taxes on imported goods (backfires!).
Millions to help farmers in the Dust Bowl.
Too little, too late…

29. Hoover’s Final Mistake
Bonus Army: 15,000 WWI veterans march on Washington asking for ‘bonus money’.
Congress refuses to pay; the army is sent to force the veterans out.
Hoover blamed for brutal attack on the veterans.

30. Welcome to Hooverville