Great Depression History Through Film Mr. Clark

The Great Depression an economic slump in North America, Europe, and other industrialized areas began in 1929 and lasted until about 1939 longest and most severe depression ever experienced by industrialized Western world.

core problem was the immense disparity between the country's productive capacity and ability of Americans to consume.

Innovations in production techniques during and after World War I raised the output of American industry BEYOND the purchasing capacity of U.S. farmers and wage earners.

Oct. 1929: drastic collapse of stock-market prices on the New York Stock Exchange

During next 3 years stock prices in US continued to fall by late 1932 they had dropped to only about 20 percent of their value in 1929

Despite government guarantees, the Depression deepened, confidence evaporated and many Americans lost their life savings. crash ruined thousands of individual investors

greatly strained banks and other financial institutions by 1933, 11,000 of the United States' 25,000 banks had failed

Business houses closed their doors, factories shut down and banks failed.

failure of banks, combined with nationwide loss of confidence in the economy, led to reduced levels of spending, reduced demand for products and then reduced production

Farm income fell some 50 percent.

The result was drastically falling output (making stuff) and drastically rising unemployment

by 1932, U.S. manufacturing output had fallen to 54 percent of its 1929 level

unemployment had risen to million By 1932 approximately one out of every four Americans was unemployed.

Great Depression began in the United States but quickly turned into a worldwide economic slump

The presidential campaign of 1932 was mainly a debate over the causes of and possible remedies for the Great Depression.

Herbert Hoover became President only eight months before the stock market crash He struggled (ineffectively) to correct economic problems and get American industry started again

Hoover’s Democratic opponent, Franklin D. Roosevelt argued that the Depression was caused by basic mistakes in the US economy (and Republican policies in 1920s)

President Hoover blames Depression on the rest of the world’s problems as well as problems left-over from World War I

1932 election was a huge victory for Franklin Delano Roosevelt

FDR introduced a number of major changes in the American economy, using increased government regulation and massive public- works projects to promote recovery.

at start of WW II, unemployment dropped as American factories were flooded with orders from overseas for armaments and munitions American males volunteered or were drafted (or were killed) reducing unemployment

After Great Depression, government assumed major role in ensuring economic stability in most industrial nations taxation, industrial regulation, public works, social insurance, social-welfare services, or deficit spending