 BOOM AND BUST – A TIME OF GREAT CHANGE IN GEORGIA AND THE UNITED STATES

 WWI allowed farmers to make great profit off of cotton and other supplies  Atlanta Forward Commission brought new businesses to Georgia  Georgia’s first commercial radio station is started- WSB in Atlanta

 Blues and Jazz music become big hit  Roaring 20s- modern conveniences- frozen food, pre- sliced bread, electricity  There was good time music and parties, radio stations, first motion picture- “The Jazz Singer”  The fast paced life makes time “roar” by

 Agriculture takes a beating- › Cotton no longer needed for uniforms › Market created by war is gone price of cotton drops from 35 cents to 10 cents a pound › boll weevil hits and destroys cotton crop › 1924 great drought hits and destroys what is left › Farmers don’t experience prosperity of the Roaring 20s – can’t afford new inventions

BUSINESSES AND BANKS FAIL  Banks and stock markets are booming- but bad business practices are looming  Government maintains a laissez-faire attitude toward business  Banks are making bad investments- taking money deposited by people and investing in skeptical stocks

 Banks made lending decisions - lending money to people who have no collateral or way to back it up  Stock market is exploding on the heels of unsafe speculating

 Tuesday, October 29, 1929 – “Black Tuesday” › The stock market crashed- millions of Americans lost everything they had › Country is thrown into the woes of the Great Depression

 Starts with an economic slow down… people begin spending less  Demand for products fall  Profits fall  People are laid off from work  People have no jobs- they spend less… And the cycle continues

decrease in profits Increase in layoffs Decrease in spending

 At first… President Hoover decided less spending on the part of the government would be better, so programs were cut  As things got worse and worse… he tried a few things such as buying large amounts of cotton and other crops to help farmers

 He set up a program to lend money to ailing businesses and supported public work projects  But it was all “too little …too late”

 Soon Hoovervilles and soup kitchens were commonplace  Unemployment was at 25%

 In most cases something will happen to turn things around…but this was not the case in the 1930S  For an entire decade the people of America were in the grips of the worst economic conditions our country has ever faced…

It would take a “New Deal” to pull America out of this Depression Or Would it?

 What was the Great Depression?  What caused the Great Depression?