HIST-405N Week 6 Discussion 1: The Great Depression

HIST-405N Week 6 Discussion 1: The Great Depression What were the underlying causes of the depression? Why did the Great Depression of the 1930s seem so much worse than any occurring either before or since? Can you see any modern parallels to the Great Depression? Elaborate. Professor and class, The start of the problems originated in the 1920’s. With the decline in demand and overproduction of textiles and mining, this trend continued into the 1930’s. (Keene, Cornell, & Edward, 2013, p. 656) The downfall continued even with the automotive, construction and appliance industries and were having a difficult time even breaking even, let alone make a profit. With corporate profit rising 62 percent, the workers pay only rose eight percent in the same time. With foreign-made good still expensive due to high tariffs to protect American companies from the competition, the foreign countries took the same approach against imports from the United States. This slowed production but delayed the prices from lowering until layoffs were the only option because companies were not making profits. This made investors stop buy stocks and deepened the loss companies were experiencing. There were also problems with agriculture. During World War I, high demand, generous prices, and easy access to credit to be able to expand. With the end of the war, the demand fell, and farmers were left with large debts, large farms, and declining crop prices. (Keene, Cornell, & Edward, 2013, p. 657) These previous problems laid the foundation for economical downturn but did not predict a worldwide depression. (Keene, Cornell, & Edward, 2013, p. 657) The Stock Market Crash of 1929 sealed the deal for any comeback by the economy. This was a ten-day period that stocks