Some Great Depression Facts - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 2 Words: 574 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2019/05/13 Category History Essay Level High school Tags: Great Depression Essay Did you like this example? I dont really know how was it was like to live in the great depression because I was not born yet all I really know is that a lot of people lost their jobs and house and that a lot of people died . I dont really want another depression to happen but if one did we survived a lot of them so we should be able to survive this and the next one and the next one after that. If I was in a depression I would survive like this I would only eat once a week and drink water when Im thirsty and I would try to live with a band of homeless people because they would know how to live on the streets. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Some Great Depression Facts" essay for you Create order I would also be with my friends and family so I want get bored of depressed and kill myself and it all ways beater to be with someone so u dont lose your sanity. So here are some great depression facts The Great Depression was the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world, lasting from 1929 to 1939. It began after the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors. Over the next several years, consumer spending and investment dropped, causing steep declines in industrial output and employment as failing companies laid off workers. By 1933, when the Great Depression reached its lowest point, some 15 million Americans were unemployed and nearly half the countrys banks had failed. Throughout the 1920s, the U.S. economy expanded rapidly, and the nations total wealth more than doubled between 1920 and 1929, a period dubbed the Roaring Twenties. The stock market, centered at the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street in New York City, was the scene of reckless speculation, where everyone from millionaire tycoons to cooks and janitors poured their savings into stocks. As a result, the stock market underwent rapid expansion, reaching its peak in August 1929. By then, production had already declined and unemployment had risen, leaving stock prices much higher than their actual value. Additionally, wages at that time were low, consumer debt was proliferating, the agricultural sector of the economy was struggling due to drought and falling food prices, and banks had an excess of large loans that could not be liquidated. On October 24, 1929, as nervous investors began selling overpriced shares en masse, the stock market crash that some had feared happened at last. A record 12.9 million shares were traded that day, known as Black Thursday. Five days later, on October 29 or Black Tuesday some 16 million shares were traded after another wave of panic swept Wall Street. Millions of shares ended up worthless, and those investors who had bought stocks on margin (with borrowed money) were wiped out completely. As consumer confidence vanished in the wake of the stock market crash, the downturn in spending and investment led factories and other businesses to slow down production and begin firing their workers. For those who were lucky enough to remain employed, wages fell and buying power decreased. Many Americans forced to buy on credit fell into debt, and the number of foreclosures and repossessions climbed steadily. The global adherence to the gold standard, which joined countries around the world in a fixed currency exchange, helped spread economic woes from the United States throughout the world, especially Europe. I got all of this from https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/great-depression-history#section_1.