The Great Depression
During the 1920s, the United States entered a period of economic prosperity and technological
advances in the areas of transportation, communication, electrification, and the arts.
These good
times concealed, or hid problems in the American economic system and attitudes about the role
of government in controlling the economy.
The country was about to enter a time of little money
and little economic growth.
This era, called the
Great Depression,
would last into the 1930s
and have a widespread and severe impact on American life.
Economists have argued for years about the causes of the Great Depression.
However, three
factors played a significant role.
The first factor was the
stock
market crash
in late October of
1929.
The stock market is a place where people can buy shares or stocks of companies.
By
buying stocks, a person is actually buying a small piece of a company.
During the 1920s, the
economy was healthy and many Americans were investing and making money in the stock
market.
In time, people became overconfident in the market.
They began to borrow money to
buy more and more stocks in the hopes of making bigger profits when they sold the stocks.
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- Fall '19
- Unemployment, Great Depression, Wall Street Crash of 1929
