The Great Depression Of 1929

Near the end of the 1920s and throughout the 1930s, the United States and many other countries saw what is known as the Great Depression. As shown by a Great Depression graph, these countries saw large numbers of people living in poverty, desperately needing food, clothing, and shelter. According to a Great Depression graph, resources that could have provided the food, clothing, and shelter were sitting idle. Another Great Depression graph shows that, in 1933, at what is considered the worst point of the Great Depression, one in four Americans looking for employment was unable to find a job. It wasn't until 1941, in the midst of World War II that the unemployment rate finally fell below 10%. The wave of unemployment hit before food stamp programs and unemployment insurance were established. There were very few programs, if any, designed to help the poor or those in difficulty, no matter how temporary. Wives did not work, which meant that should a husband lose his job, all the income for their household stopped completely. Should an equivalent rate of unemployment occur today, there would be less economic hardship, due to the variety of programs available to cushion unemployment. According to a Great Depression graph, the beginning of the Depression began on October 24, 1929. That infamous Black Thursday, when the stock market crashed, was indeed a traumatic day for those who held stock ownership. The decline in overall stock prices, however, was only 2.5 percent, as opposed to the over 89 percent decline that took place in the future. On July 7, 1932, the market hit bottom, with a New York Times index of only 33.98, a dramatic decline from the September 19, 1929 high of 311.90. A Great Depression graph by an economist dates the Depression differently. They make a distinction between recession and depression, and they use the concept of recession more than depression. The period known as the Great Depression actually contained two periods of recession. The first began in August 1929 and ended in March 1933. The recovery that followed in the next four years was slow and not complete by the time the second recession, starting in May 1937 and ending in June 1938, began. The unemployment rates of the '30s made those who had jobs thankful that they had their jobs and it also made them fearful of losing them. Those who could not find jobs often took to the roads, some regularly riding the rails. The homeless took shelter in shantytowns throughout the nation that became known as "Hoovervilles." The Depression was more than an American affair. Many other nations experienced a similar decline, though the timing and severity varied from country to country. Britain experienced its Depression in the third quarter of 1932, while France did not experience a low point until April of 1935. Regardless of timing or the location, the question remains the same. What caused this disaster? No Great Depression graph known to date has been able to figure that out.

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