1. Causes of the Great Depression

2. Economic Terms needed to discuss Great Depression.
Tariff: Putting a tax on imported goods
Income Distribution: How income is spread out among the people in a country.
Gross National Product: the total value of all goods and services produced in a given year within a country.
Business Cycle: The regular ups and downs of a free-market/enterprise economy.
Scarcity: Items are scarce when demand is higher than supply.

4. The Income Gap
“The Depression is one of abundance, not scarcity. The cause of the trouble is that a small class has the wealth, while the rest have the debts.” Upton Sinclair
What does this statement mean?
A small percentage of people hold the majority of the money.
This creates a high amount of inequality or unequal distribution
People tried to bridge the gap by using credit

5. The Business Cycle The Business Cycle
Some theorize the depression was a natural part of the business cycle.
Industries hire more workers and make more goods during the good times, but this will result in a surplus when things start to decrease.
Once a depression sets in, they lay people off and begin to cut back on production
Then, once things are going well again, they increase production and hire more help.

6. Global Depression Global Depression
Great Depression was not just a problem in the United States.
Much of Europe was in shambles after World War I.
Owed war debts and could not pay them.
Reparations
How could this impact the American economy?
Americans could not sell things overseas.
The United States could have eased the global depression, but instead made things worse.
Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930 put high taxes on imported goods.
Why was this done?
What harm did it cause?

7. BONUS!!!!!!!
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