The Great Recession
In 1929 the United States was faced with the beginning of the Great Depression. As the finishing bell rang on Wall Street on what become known as “Black Tuesday” the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped thirteen percent and the following day dropped another ten percent. This was the beginning of one of the worst decades in U.S. history. Over the next four years unemployment would sky rocket from three percent all the way up to twenty-five percent. All across the country citizens were faced with the fear of economic uncertainty and the onslaught of poverty.
Americans today are faced with a similar economic uncertainty. One of the greatest challenges for the U.S. is the struggling economy. Beginning in early 2002 the United States of America began an economic downturn which has left many unsure of what will happen. There are many variables to this economic equation and the U.S. Government is having trouble determining how to prioritize these variables to produce the most effective results. The economic situation is like a patient that arrives at a hospital after being stabbed twenty times and is bleeding from multiple wounds. The wounds must be accessed and prioritized in order for treatment to be effective. The U.S. is bleeding money from interior wounds such as a crippled Social Security Program and an insolvent Medicare system. These wounds are a result of inadequate funding and misuse of funds over the past several decades. As for the exterior wounds, those can be accredited to deficit spending and the government’s attempt to manipulate the natural ebb and flow of a free market economy. This has proven to be a toxic combination for the U.S. economy which may not be able to recover from its wo...
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...ing up debt to keep the economy afloat, the government is simply digging a deeper hole. This current level of spending is unsustainable. At the end of this deficit spending the population will feel the pain of trying to dig their way out of the enormous hole that the government spending has created.
As a result of this lethal economic concoction the United States economy is on the verge of collapse. If the United States Government stays on this unsustainable course of unfunded liabilities and deficit spending it may lead to the end of The American Democratic Experiment. Thomas Jefferson once said “Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it”, it appears that reason has left the minds of those in power within the United States Government and their error of opinion may be the downfall of one of the greatest nations in history.
After nearly a decade of optimism and prosperity, the United States took a turn for the worse on October 29, 1929 the day the stock market crashed, better known as Black Tuesday and the official beginning of the Great Depression. The downfall of the economy during the presidency of Herbert Hoover led to much comparison when his successor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, took office. Although both presidents had their share of negative feedback, it is evident that Hoover’s inaction towards the crises and Roosevelt’s later eccentric methods to simulate the economy would place FDR in the positive limelight of fixing the nation in one of its worst times.
When “Black Tuesday” struck Wall Street on October 29th, 1929 investors traded 16 million shares on the on the New York Stock Exchange in just a day which caused billions of dollars to be lost and thousands of investors who got all their money wiped out. After the fallout of “Black Tuesday” America’s industrialized country fell down into the Great Depression which was one of the longest economic downfalls in history of the Western industrialized world. On “Black Tuesday” stock prices dropped completely. After “Black Tuesday” stock prices couldn’t get any worse or so they thought but however prices continued to drop U.S fell into the Great Depression, and by 1932 stocks were only worth about 20 percent of their value. Due to this economic downfall by 1933 almost half of America’s banks had failed. This was a major economic fallout which resulted in the Great Depression because it caused the economy to lose a lot of money and there was no way to dig themselves out of the hole of
War is not a cheap man’s game. At the core of every nation sits an economy comprised of varying wealth and resources. A nation’s prosperity is dependent on its economic fortitude. In a constant state of fluctuation, economic prosperity is often fleeting, with a single event capable of causing economic turmoil for decades to come. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 acted as a catalyst for economic change in the United States. The attacks presented isolated economic desolation, but the growing concern for security and the war on terror provided the greatest economic impact for the United States and the world.
A “Financial Crisis”, an “Economic disaster on a scale few nations have ever experienced”(1), the “Great Recession”, the “Lesser Depression”, the “Long Recession”, the “Global Recession of 2009”(2) and the “Financial Implosion”(3) are all expressions used to describe the economic situation the United States found itself in 2012. Louis Michael Seidman, a Harvard graduate and Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Constitution Law at Georgetown University Law Center, referred to it as “fiscal chaos”. It is Professor Seidman’s belief that the cause of this great chaos is the “archaic, idiosyncratic and downright evil provisions” of the Constitution. Seidman wrote an article in the New York Times entitled, “Let’s give up on the Constitution”, and argues, due to his personal philosophy, that the Constitution should be abandoned. (4) Seidman fails to acknowledge poor fiscal banking policy, lending to non-qualified borrowers, government bailout of private corporations or perhaps the repeal of the Glass Steagall Banking Act (5) as the sources contributing to the financial crisis. Instead, he places the entire blame on the founding fathers. In spite of Seidman’s ridiculous quibbles, the Constitution should be up held to maintain both the solidity and freedom the United States offers its citizens.
The years berween 1929 and 1933 were trying years for people throughout the world. Inflation was often so high money became nearly worthless. America had lost the prosperity it had known during the 1920's. America was caught in a trap of a complete meltdown of economy, workers had no jobs simply because it cost too much to ship the abundance of goods being produced. This cycle was unbreakable, and produced what is nearly universally recognized as the greatest economic collapse of all times. These would be trying years for all, but not every American faced the same challenges and hardships. (Sliding 3)
The US has been in and out of debt countless times throughout history, going as far back as the Civil War. However, debt did not become a truly relevant problem until much later, in the 1980s (Budget Deficits). Up to that point, large budget deficits were generally only allowed during wartime, but this pattern ended after the Great Depression. Roosevelt’s New Deal meant that the government spent much more than it previously did, even after the economy improved (Budget De...
Every few years, countries experience an economic decline which is commonly referred to as a recession. In recent years the U.S. has been faced with overcoming the most devastating global economic hardships since the Great Depression. This period “a period of declining GDP, accompanied by lower real income and higher unemployment” has been referred to as the Great Recession (McConnell, 2012 p.G-30). This paper will cover the issues which led to the recession, discuss the strategies taken by the Government and Federal Reserve to alleviate the crisis, and look at the future outlook of the U.S. economy. By examining the nation’s economic struggles during this time period (2007-2009), it will conclude that the current macroeconomic situation deals with unemployment, which is a direct result of the recession.
Great Depression was one of the most severe economic situation the world had ever seen. It all started during late 1929 and lasted till 1939. Although, the origin of depression was United Sattes but with US Economy being highly correlated with global economy, the ill efffects were seen in the whole world with high unemployment, low production and deflation. Overall it was the most severe depression ever faced by western industrialized world. Stock Market Crashes, Bank Failures and a lot more, left the governments ineffective and this lead the global economy to what we call today- ‘’Great Depression’’.(Rockoff). As for the cause and what lead to Great Depression, the issue is still in debate among eminent economists, but the crux provides evidence that the worst ever depression ever expereinced by Global Economy stemed from multiple causes which are as follows:
October 29th, 1929 marked the beginning of the Great Depression, a depression that forever changed the United States of America. The Stock Market collapse was unavoidable considering the lavish life style of the 1920’s. Some of the ominous signs leading up to the crash was that there was a high unemployment rate, automobile sales were down, and many farms were failing. Consumerism played a key role in the Stock Market Crash of 1929 because Americans speculated on the stocks hoping they would grow in their favor. They would invest in these stocks at a low rate which gave them a false sense of wealth causing them to invest in even more stocks at the same low rate. When they purchased these stocks at this low rate they never made enough money to pay it all back, therefore contributing to the crash of 1929. Also contributing to the crash was the over production of consumer goods. When companies began to mass produce goods they did not not need as many workers so they fired them. Even though there was an abundance of goods mass produced and at a cheap price because of that, so many people now had no jobs so the goods were not being purchased. Even though, from 1920 to 1929, consumerism and overproduction partially caused the Great Depression, the unequal distribution of wealth and income was the most significant catalyst.
The Great Depression was a period, which seemed to go out of control. The crashing of the stock markets left most Canadians unemployed and in debt, prairie farmers suffered immensely with the inability to produce valuable crops, and the Canadian Government and World War II became influential factors in the ending of the Great Depression.
...but it is also taking away the jobs of many Americans. Not many goods are made in America today; this is affecting the trade with other countries, which affects the economy. Every decision the government chooses to make with the countries budget, helps reflect how the economy is doing.
Beginning on Black Tuesday, October 29th, 1929, a total of 14 billion dollars was lost in America’s economy. Near the end of the week the 14 billion turned into a total of 30 billion dollars (The Great Depression Facts). Many events during the Stock Market Crash caused damage to the economy and lifestyle of the country, ending with recuperations from The Depression.
Devastation and desperation started on Thursday, October 24, 1929. There was a strong sense of panic in the air at the Stock Exchange. The stocks were dropping, alarmingly fast; the worried American tried desperately to keep their savings. Markets began to steady again on Friday and Saturday only to sweep back down the following Monday. By Tuesday the twenty-ninth all doubt was erased, many Americans lost everything they had on Black Tuesday (Andrist and Stillman 190). President Herbert Hoover made a decision and refused to provide emergency relief. Hoover believed that it was “strictly a state and local responsibility.” Most local organizations were far too small to handle this big of a situation (Andrist and Stillman 193). America needed a change, a change that would come at the next election time.
The black Tuesday, October 29th, 1929 has been identified as the symbol of the Great Depression. Stock holders lost 14 billion dollars on a single day trade, and more than 30 billion lose in that week, which was 10 times more than the annual budget of the Federal government.[ [documentary] 1929 Wall Street Stock Market Crash
" The US Economy. N.p., 31 Oct. 2012. Web. The Web. The Web.