Business Failures 1920-1932
By: Natalie Hinson, Carina Zhao, Uzair Javaid, Mohit Joshi
The Start of The Great Depression
How the Great Depression Affected Businesses
By 1932 the unemployment rate had soared past 20%. Thousands of banks and businesses had failed, leaving many homeless. People returned home after hopeless job hunts to find their dwellings padlocked and their possessions and families turned into the street. Many lived at the edges of cities in makeshift shantytowns their residents derisively called Hoovervilles. People foraged in dumps and garbage cans for food.
Calling All the Unemployed
Free Food if you are Unemployed
Help Please!
Facts About the Great Depression
- Most bank failures occurred in rural areas
- Less banks meant less money to be loaned to industries
- Companies forced to pay workers less, pay cuts averaged 18% in 1932
- Production faltered, workers were laid off, and many were forced to close
- Failure rate skyrocketed to 127 out of every 1000 businesses (12.7%) in 1930-1933
- Total value of goods produced decreased from $104 billion to $56 billion
- Business failure caused massive unemployment, from 9% in 1930 to 25% in 1933Aftermath and Recovery
In the aftermath of the Great Depression, a lot of things changed. There were 10,000 banks that went out of business. Around one-half of all banks either closed or merged with other banks. The role of the Federal Reserve and government increased. Tighter regulations were put on financial markets and banks. The Federal Reserved shifted to a policy of maintaining high employment and fast growth.
Bibliography
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Taylor, Nick. "Great Depression (1930's) News - The New York Times." Times Topics - The New York Times. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2013. <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/g/great_depression_1930s/index.html>.
"The Great Depression, business slump of the 1930's." U.S. History and The Constitution. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2013. <http://thehistoryprofessor.us/bin/histprof/misc/depression.html>.