What caused The Great Depression and who screwed it up so badly?

Question

I need some info because this is on a social studies essay that has to be done by Monday and I was assigned it Friday.

Answer 1

it had to have been a democrat deal

Answer 2

If I remember correctly, there were at least half a dozen reasons that "caused" or led to the Great Depression, several of these reasons are not remembered these days.

1. The Wall Street, Stock Market crash of 1929. People were able to buy stocks on borrowed money which among other things led to paper money being devalued. The fact that the stock market did not have the regulations that we have today is largely why it crashed. This eventually led to the major global depression of the 1930s that brought the economies of other countries down. When you hear reports in the news about certain "economic indicators", such as unemployment levels, this reflects the fact that many people and the financial industry in general remembers well the disaster that was the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and The Great Depression of the 1930s.

2. Dust Bowl. The farmers of the midwest had overfarmed the land, leading to soil that was severely leached and could not support crops. Drought and farmers' inability to financially support themselves did not help the situation.

3. Bank failures and the government's lack of support for the banks. Lack of regulation in the banking industry.

4. The "free market" economy and lack of regulation here as well.

5. Widespread unemployment also took its toll. It wasn't until World War II, when 12 million were drafted and war goods production programs reduced unemployment to under 2%, down from levels ranging from over 10% to up to 25%, that the unemployment problem was solved.

6. International depression and poor policy making decisions.

Answer 3

Ouch, big question, no "One" person Screwed it up, it takes a nation to cause a nationa ldepression. the Depression i nthe US was already happening all over europe. After WWI Germany suffered the worst, a wheel barrel of cash could not buy a loaf of bread, and that was not an exageration. the War had decimated the male youth of Eurpoe (called the lost Genration). agriculture and INdustry could not revert back to peace very quickly because the large scope of the war, In the US it was good time on credit in the booming twenties, but by the end of that decade, the bill was due on so many credit lines, and no one had the cash, the stock market literally crashed, Industry stooped producing, laborers lost there jobs, nearly 30% of American who where employed previous, could not find employment, the large cities and mid west farms suffered the most by far. the banks had the money drained away, and the "Dust bowl", happened at the same time in the MId west (several years of drought, mixed with over farming, caused the top soil to literally blow away,) this was called the "Dirty thirties" dust was everywhere, the farmers lost there lands to the banks, and many immigrated to the West coast. it was a series of bad choices of all tiers of business and consumers to live on such credit, and the mix with the natural disasters, and collapsed European economy, just brought things down quickly. It actually took World war two, to pull the US out of the Depression?! (war can do strange things). Banks are insured by the Federal Gov't since, and the credit problem has re-imerged greatly since the mid 1980s, but I don't think you got to worry about the same type of collapse, one could happen, several smaller ones have, but the one in the 1930s is still the Great Depression.

Answer 4

well... several factors... but a major one is the fact that they let people borrow money to invest in the stock market...

this of course, meant that the stock market went crazy with all the volume of buying... but then at some point, it slowed down, people started freaking out because it slowed down, and started pulling out, which pulled the whole market down...

so the people that borrowed the money, lost it all, couldn't pay it back... the entire system broke... and the market crashed like a 1983 tandy trying to run windows vista

Answer 5

You are screwed. That is not only a controversial question, but it is too complicated to answer here. You better get your lazy rear end down to the library and start hitting the books.

Seriously.

Answer 6

No one screwed up. At that time knowledge of economics and how to prevent catastrophes like the stock market crash didn't exist. Governments and economic systems are just like people in many ways... lessons have to be learned the hard way by trial and error.

Answer 7

Have you tried Wikipedia? It might be a start.

Here is a link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_depression

Answer 8

man--like people who do things at the last second

Answer 9

The GREATEST DEPRESSION IS COMING IN 2008, Yeah you guessed it right its due to the Neo-cons with their Leader BUSH.

Answer 10

go to ask.com and type in great depression and read all about it....