Causes Of The Great Depression

As the 1920’s were coming to a close, the United States had the largest economy in the world. World War I brought so much destruction that caused Europeans to struggle immensely while Americans flourished in many ways. President Herbert Hoover had predicted that the United States would eventually see the day when poverty was gone forever. But as soon as those words were said, everything began falling apart. The stock market crash of the late 1920s is what began a series of events that flung the United States into its most devastating economic crisis of all time. It would be a lie to say that the stock market crash as the only cause of the Great Depression. There were numerous structural fall backs in America’s economic system. The banks were …show more content…
There were hardly any regulations placed on banks and they began lending money to people who gambled carelessly in stocks. Bank failures hit our nation hard. If a family saved any of their money in a trust by one of the failed banks — unfortunately, all of their money was gone forever. As Americans saw banks starting to close and their savings disappear into thin air, there was little money left to spend on goods and services. Sadly, companies began to lay off their employees to balance new losses.
When President Hoover was established in office, the American economy was basically holding on by a thread. Hoover could not provide the proper relief American needed from this nationwide panic. American’s began losing their jobs, and Hoover’s popularity started to diminish. He made no effort to push any sort of government intervention to help solve the problems. As another year went by in Hoover’s presidency, the economy shrank even more. The downward spiral caused from unemployment …show more content…
Roosevelt was elected President. He promised to create Federal Government programs to end the Great Depression once and for all. Within a few short months, the “New Deal” was set into place. The New Deal that Roosevelt developed during his Presidency was without a doubt the most ambitious in the history of the United States. The New Deal created over 40 new programs designed to create jobs and provide unemployment insurance. Many of those programs, such as Social Security, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation are still around today protecting our economy. A major relief program developed during this time was the Works Progress Administration. The WPA employed nearly 9 million Americans. Americans were given jobs to match their skill levels. The plan was not perfect and many failures came along the way, but its safe to say that President Roosevelt and the New Deal did help America build its back bone which made them strong enough to fight

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