One of the most significant causes for the Great Depression was the bank failures. Another reason for the Depression was that everyone was rendered poor when the drought hit and food became more and more expensive the longer the drought went on.
I think that the most significant cause of the great depression was the Dust Bowl. The big drought was very important. It made it so that the crops could not grow. Since there were no crops, farmers could not sell anything. The farmers became very poor. Also, the grocery stores could not get vegetables because the farmers could not plant anything. That means that stores lost sales to. Since they lost a lot of money, they had to make lay offs. That made a lot of people lose their jobs.
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Andrew Murphy
11/3/2009 07:31:24 am
I think that the Dust Bowl was the most important cause of the Great Depression. This is why.
1. The crops that farmers were growing would not grow.
2. Farmers could not sell crops to the grocery store because they had nothing to sell.
3. Farmers lost money.
4. Since some stores did not have certain vegetables/fruits, they lost sales.
5. Stores lost money.
6. They had to lay people off because they were running low on money.
7. People who got laid off were using loans that they could not pay back.
8. Banks lost money.
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Cimone Bridgewater
11/5/2009 10:07:17 am
I believe that one of the things that led to the Great Crash of 1929 was the fact that bank loans were just beginning to get popular so now you see a great deal of people spending money that they didn't have. People that invested in the stock market when it crashed lost a great deal of money. This produced a rippe affect: When investors lose money and businesses lose profits. Consumer spending drops, businesses cut investment and production. Some fail. Workers are laid off. Businesses and workers cannot repay loans. Banks run out of money and some fail. Bank runs occur. Savings accounts are wiped out.
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Ruben
11/9/2009 04:36:03 am
I believe that the dust bowwl made a big impact in the Great Depression. There was a big drought for many years wich affected farms, which affected food production.
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Ruben
11/9/2009 04:36:38 am
I believe that the dust bowl made a big impact in the Great Depression. There was a big drought for many years wich affected farms, which affected food production.
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Cimone
11/20/2009 03:15:15 am
What caused the Great Depression, the worst economic depression in US history? It was not just one factor, but instead a combination of domestic and worldwide conditions that led to the Great Depression. As such, there is no agreed upon list of all its causes. Here instead is a list of the top reasons that historians and economists have cited as causing the Great Depression. The effects of the Great Depression was huge across the world. Not only did it lead to the New Deal in America but more significantly, it was a direct cause of the rise of extremism in Germany leading to World War II.
1. Stock Market Crash of 1929 Many believe erroneously that the stock market crash that occurred on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929 is one and the same with the Great Depression. In fact, it was one of the major causes that led to the Great Depression. Two months after the original crash in October, stockholders had lost more than $40 billion dollars. Even though the stock market began to regain some of its losses, by the end of 1930, it just was not enough and America truly entered what is called the Great Depression.
2. Reduction in Purchasing Across the Board With the stock market crash and the fears of further economic woes, individuals from all classes stopped purchasing items. This then led to a reduction in the number of items produced and thus a reduction in the workforce. As people lost their jobs, they were unable to keep up with paying for items they had bought through installment plans and their items were repossessed. More and more inventory began to accumulate. The unemployment rate rose above 25% which meant, of course, even less spending to help alleviate the economic situation..
3. American Economic Policy with Europe As businesses began failing, the government created the Smoot-Hawley Tariff in 1930 to help protect American companies. This charged a high tax for imports thereby leading to less trade between America and foreign countries along with some economic retaliation..
4. Drought Conditions While not a direct cause of the Great Depression, the drought that occurred in the Mississippi Valley in 1930 was of such proportions that many could not even pay their taxes or other debts and had to sell their farms for no profit to themselves. This was the topic of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.
Another cause of the great depression could also be the high unemployment rate. Up to 9 million people were still out of jobs. To get food they had to wait in bread lines for hours. Without jobs they could not get the things they needed. People became sick which made it even more difficulty to get jobs.
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Ruben
11/22/2009 05:40:25 am
I agree with Cimone. All of these factors or inccidents caused the Great Depresson. After everything America had been going through at that time to finish it off it had to go through a great depression before it could get better.
