The Great Depression
By: Summer Maccubbin
What Caused the Great Depression?
The Stock Market crash of 1929 caused many bank failures throughout the South and Midwest. Citizens feared the decrease in value of their currency, and therefore stopped spending it. The lack of circulation of currency caused the depression to worsen. The Federal Reserve could have added more money into the circulation to aid in the Great Depression, however they did not, and this made the Great Depression the event it remains in history.
How did this effect the everyday citizen?
Many citizens ran to their banks to withdrawl their life savings, however this was practically impossible, since the banks didn't have enough money to give everyone their money back. This caused many people to go without homes, since the banks refused to give them money. Many citizens lived on the streets and many went without food. This lasted for almost a decade before the ordinary citizen could afford to live in a house again and feed their families.
How did it effect the rest of the World?
Lack of trade and the decreasing of currency caused many different countries to cut ties with the United States. This caused many products to stop being traded between countries. This also hurt our economy by the lack of income that we recived through trade in various countries.