1. Staple rubric to the FRONT of your poster
Do Now:
Staple rubric to the FRONT of your poster
If your poster is bigger, turn in rubric in basket and place poster on back table
Make sure you have completed the GUIDING QUESTIONS!
Turn in Poster

2. causes of Great depression
“Go on, take the money and run”
--Steve Miller Band

3. The roaring twenties Decade of the consumer
Supermarkets and chain stores started in the 1920s  consumerism and materialism
New products: vacuums, dishwashers, refrigerators, automobiles, and radios
Those that could not afford these new luxury items upfront found ways to finance them

4. economics
In the prosperity of the 1920s, many believed financial security would never end
So, laissez-faire should continue
Stock market steadily rose as shares saw a 40% increase by 1929
More people began buy stock hoping to strike it rich.
This led to…

5. Speculation – buying stock hoping the price will go up so it can be sold at the higher price
Buying On The Margin – buying a full share of stock for the fraction of the cost
 Bank Loans – to make a profit, banks loan money to investors and collect interest from those loans
Many banks loaned money to speculators who hoped to strike it rich
Banks themselves invested in the stock market hoping to make huge profits

6. Causes
Stock market crash NOT the major cause of the Great Depression but it undermined the economy’s ability to handle other problems like:
Banks who had loaned money to speculators were unable to collect that money
Banks who had invested themselves lost millions
Together, these problems forced many banks to close and their customers lost everything

8. Bank Runs – many customers withdrew their money at once for fear of bank closures and lack of confidence in the banks
Hawley-Smoot Act (1930) –to protect American business, it raised tariffs in America to highest in history
This caused foreign nations to raise their tariffs leading to a decrease in sales of exported goods  American businesses suffered as did farmers
International Debt Crisis – following World War I, Germany owed repartitions (war damages) to Britain and France who owed money from loans given to them by the United States.
No European country able to repay war debt added to American debt (also why the Depression hit Europe as well)