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What Caused The Great Depression In America

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The Crippling of a Country Have it all one moment, the next day you have nothing. That's how millions of Americans felt during one of the biggest economic challenges the United States has ever faced. There are several reasons for the downfall of the great depression. Before the depression hit in 1929, the American economy was booming (“The Great Depression” ushistory.org). After World War One ended in 1918 America was still thriving from the war business. The economy kept getting better through the early 20s and kept rising in later years. When the market topped out and couldn’t go up, this lead into the stock market crash of 1929. The stock market crash was a huge factor in the depression, but not the single cause; other causes include unemployment, …show more content…

Everyone was in a panic from the market crash so they all came at one time. The people of the U.S. thought they were in danger and knew that the banks had no guarantee of getting money back. The banks could not hold up giving back money to everyone at the same time. Before the 30s the economy was great,people were buying all kinds of goods and a lot of credit with the thoughts they could pay it back. When the depression hit, they couldn’t. After the crash everyone wanted their money back from banks, forcing them to fail. The people that payed their money on credit or margin were not able to pay it back. This meant that those people were often likely to lose a lot of their possessions if not everything. People lost their houses and cars and were left with nothing in a crucial time. The people of America turned to Hoover for help, they got nothing ("What Caused the Great Depression"). During the depression this sign was found in a Hooverville. “Need work, need money, need …show more content…

People began the 1920s with so much faith in the American economy that they were buying all kinds of good ("Great Depression"). The new tool the credit card was introduced, and being used without people thinking rationally. People were buying all kinds of things on credit, some promises that could not be fulfilled. People weren't just putting money off on credit, they now were buying stocks on margin.People were lending money to their stock brokers in hopes that they could still make a profit off the stock market. The American people didn't get in trouble with these habits when times were good. For Americas it was easy to pay off the appliances when they had firm holding jobs. When the crash hit, it became harder and harder to pay off those debts (“Great Depression”). Americans were giving away so much money that they didn’t have, that it just put them in a hole when money became tight. The American people dug their own graves in some circumstances. Giving money away that they didn't have later came back to haunt Americans, as some banks and businesses took almost everything from these people, leaving them with the clothes on their

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