The U.S. Great Depression

Abstract

The US Great Depression began with the collapse of the booming stock market at Wall Street in October 1929. Within three years,75 percent of the paper value of securities vanished. There had been serious defects in the economy of the 1920’s. As production rose, too little profits went to farmers, other producers of raw materials or workers. Government had played the wrong role in the economic system during the twenties. Taxes, by sparing the rich, had added to the inequality of incomes. High tariffs had discouraged foreign trade : large exports could have continued only so long as Americans kept on lending abroad. Failure to break up or regulate big business had encouraged concentration and resulted in rigidly high prices. Nothing had been done to check speculation or supervise the securities market, and nothing effective had been done to restore the buying power of farmers. By 1932, at least 13 million people were unemployed. The richest country in the world now staggered through an economic catastrophe that reduced millions to destitution and many to despair.