Great Depression Timeline

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Timeline of Significant Events during the Great Depression of 1930s The Roaring Twenties The period prior to the Great Depression is best described as a decade of a prosperous America beginning in 1921, one year after a short period of recession resulted from the World War I. The financial boom continued to expand until the notorious Wall Street Crash or Black Tuesday in 1929, which marked the beginning of a decade of economic depression (Rothbard, 2000). Automobile manufacturers including Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler increased their vehicle productions in the 1920s, with an approximately three-fold increase from 1,518,000 units to 4,587,400 units from 1921 to 1929, respectively (Smiley, 1993). The Wall Street Crash of 1929 The…show more content…
The over-expectation of investors that they would receive a higher expected return, compared to interest paid, made them willing to borrow and invest. He believed that this particular events cause the over-indebtedness in 1929 (Fisher, 1933). It is obvious that in 1929 American investors were in indebtedness; therefore, even a minor event could lead to the decline in stock price. Romer commented that on October 24, 1929 investors started a panic selling leading to a sharp decrease in stock price. Stock price in the US market dropped dramatically by 33 percent in two months (Romer, 2003). Following the stock market crash on October 29, 1929, the longest period of economic depression in the US history began to become severe. There was around 20 percent in the Dow Jones Stock Indices, which was equivalent to a loss of approximately $8 or $9 billion US Dollars (Taylor, 2008). American GNP decreased by almost 50 percent four years after the Great Crash, from 1929 to 1933, while there was also a 33 percent fall in real GNP and 25 percent decline in price level. The unemployment rate skyrocketed from 4 percent to 25 percent from 1929 to 1933, and the figure remained above 10 percent until the Second World War broke out (Wheelock,…show more content…
Roosevelt took his office in the White House, where he later announced the beginning of “bank holiday”, a period of ten days when US depositors could not withdraw their money. Before the Great Crash took place, there were around 250,000 banks nationwide, but the number drop dramatically to only 12,000 banks after the end of bank holiday in 1933. The circulation of money supply in the US economy also experienced a dramatic downturn from 1929 to 1933, when the figure dropped by almost 30 percent. The massive contraction of money supply resulted in a sharp decline in total demands in the market, especially the decline in total spending of US consumers. 1933 was a milestone in the dark age of US economy which saw a 30 percent drop in GDP and a 25 percent rise in unemployment rates (Pongracic,
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