Great Depression

The Great Depression

2006

A huge economic downturn , which started in 1929 and ended in the mid-30s involving the majority of developed countries of the world , is called the Great Depression . There are numerous theories about the reasons of this slump , which mostly point on such economic problems , like collapses at stock markets , under-consumption , misbalance of the amounts of investments , corruption in world banking system , etc

The main cause of this economic recession in the United States was a huge crash at New York Stock Exchange in October 1929 . Long-term

depression of stock prices brought to considerable lack of investments extreme slowdown in manufacturing and service sectors , escalating level of unemployment and other economic failures . As a response , in 1932 the amount of goods produced in the country reached only 54 of the level of 1929 (UIUC , n .d

Shortly after , the Great Depression spread onto Europe and other world 's territories . Many European countries were still recovering after the events and losses of the World War I , so their economic conditions were quite miserable . Besides , the role of the USA as the main investor and trade-partner after the war was greatly important , and economic problems in our country caused huge difficulties for national economies of European states . Especially hard situation took place in Germany and Great Britain , which were the defeated countries after the war

In early 30s the Great Depression caused such reactions , as massive migration of people and extreme poverty . Prices for all the goods were constantly rising , that is why it became a problem for middle class Americans to make ends meet . Even those , who could continue working (farmers , officials or service sector employees , could not receive proper reward for their work , as all the markets suffered depression . Stagnation in manufacturing minimized international trade

Only radical political and economic transformations could bring to some revival . In many countries , like the USA , Germany , etc , new political leaders came to power (F . Roosevelt , A . Hitler ) and started introducing some urgent measures on economic recovery . The main lesson from the Great Depression was the necessity of constant governmental involvement into management and regulation of economic situation in the country

Bibliography

About the Great Depression (n .d . University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign . Retrieved May 5 , 2006 , from

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