What Are The Causes Of The Great Depression

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The causes of the Great Depression began when investors in 1929 were buying stock and paying on 10 percent of the stock and getting the rest of the money for the stock through loans.They did this risky behavior because in the past the investors were able to resell for a higher price and get lot of money out of it. They were also able to pay back the loans they got. When the people that gave the loas to the investors demanded their payment back in October 1929. The investors could not pay thus causing a crash. That is how it crashed the reason or should I say reasons it lasted so long was a lot of poor decisions that worked detrimentally together in making the Great Depression last.

One of those reasons was that the decisions made by the federal government by making interest rates higher causing the general public have little or no chance to get credit to start stimulating the economy again. Another decision that turned out to be foolish on the federal governments part was the Hawley-Smoot Tariff. This Tariff made foreign governments mad at the US government and in return tried to keep out American goods in their countries. This hurt the American economy even more because the nation could not stimulate the economy internally now it could not do it externally. …show more content…

Not only were businesses were affected but also the agriculture aspect of economy was affected. Unemployment rose astronomically in all spectrums of the US economy. People lost houses, and businesses, they began living on the streets unable to find work. Many people either committed suicide or reverted to stealing in order to

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