The Great Depression Essay - 1585 Words

The Great Depression When a person hears the words â€Å"The Great Depression,† almost everyone thinks of the worst economic times in the United States. The Great Depression started in the late 1920s and continued on until the early 1940s. It is known as being â€Å"the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the western industrialized world† (History.com). We can learn from the occurrences during The Great Depression that government involvement is the deciding factor of whether an economy will expand or continue to shrink during a recession. The 1920’s, also known as the Roaring Twenties, were fantastic times for the economy. People were buying extravagant things such as automobiles, and investing in the stock market in†¦show more content†¦During this time, 1929, the United States had not created the Federal Reserve yet, nor had it created regulations on banks or insured banks so that depositors could get their money back up to a certain amount if the bank closed. So these banks closing meant people lost all the money they had deposited there. Also, the fact that banks were closing caused people to panic and run to their banks to withdraw their money. The problem with that is the fact that banks use depositors’ money to loan out to other people so they don’t actually have all the depositors’ money at the bank. So the people at the back of the lines didn’t get their money back because the bank did not have enough money. Those people also lost all of their money that was in the bank. The banks from which people withdrew all of their money from were forced to close because they no longer had any depositors, meaning they no longer had money. By 1933, 11,000 out of the 25,000 banks in the United States had closed (Nelson). With the crash of the stock market and the closing of many banks, several people lost faith and decided to save more and spend less money. With peoples’ dec ision to save more money, many factories and businesses had to cut employees’ pay or lay off workers because of the fact that there was less of a demand for things. â€Å"Some businesses couldn’t stay open even with these cuts and soon closed their doors, leaving all their workers unemployed† (About.com).Show MoreRelatedThe Depression Of The Great Depression1223 Words   |  5 Pagesfar-reaching consequences as the Great Depression. This experience was the most extended and severe depression of the Western world. It was an economic downturn that began in 1929 and lasted until 1939. 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You would think the United States would have learned from their mistakes but it seems we are going down the same road once again without even taking a step back and realizing it. When people talk about the Great Depression not a single person will have anything good to say about it. It ca used families a great deal of pain that they will never forget. WithRead MoreThe Great Depression1368 Words   |  6 PagesAfter WW1 the Great Depression had a very late impact on the major film companies in France, when it did, it unfortunately caused several film studios to go bankrupt, then in the late 1920’s to 1930’s many small film companies and groups emerged giving birth to the tendency called poetic realism. Because the large companies who made films with a focus on making money were gone the filmmakers and artists were able to concern themselves with the art of film, they often took poetic innovations thatRead MoreThe Great Depression1133 Words   |  5 Pagesâ€Å"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,† is a famous quote once said during the Great Depression by Franklin D. Roosevelt. After one world war, great financial fallout, and another world war to follow, the twentieth century was already shaping out to be a handful. When the Great D epression was coming to an end and the economy was trying to turn around, jobs started opening up and a new wave of immigrants came into New York, the Puerto Ricans. For some the American dream was to come to