Depression Keywords Flashcards
Economic depression
A sustained, long-term downturn in economic activity in one or more economies. It is a more severe economic downturn than a recession, which is a slowdown in economic activity over the course of a normal business cycle. From 1929-1938 the Great Depression was the worst form of its kind in the industrialised countries it affected. The human cost was devastating.
Growth of unemployment
Unemployment soared from as much as 3.2% in 1929 to 25.2% of the labour force by 1933. About 12,830,000 people were out of work and suffering. By 1933 the Depression covered the whole of the USA, however, black Americans and women were particular victims.
Collapse of Gross Domestic Product
The total value of goods produced and services provided in a country during one year. In 1933 this was half of what it had been in 1929, meaning that what America was producing and selling plumited.
Herbert Hoover
Republican President elected 1929-1933. Although he intervened more than any other previous President, he was ill equipped to deal with the devastating effects of the Depression and was pretty unsuccessful.
The Smoot-Hawley tariff
One of Hoover’s unsuccessful measures. This tax was enforced in June 1930, raising the tariffs paid by other countries to sell their goods in America up to 40% (the highest ever in USA). This was designed to protect US industry, but in fact stifled international trade.
Homelessness and Hoovervilles
Shanty towns grew of temporary homes of the many homeless people during this time. Hoover gave no direct relief to help these people, any money that was given was not supposed to be a free “hand-out” as Hoover believed this would ruin self-help. Instead money could be borrowed by those unemployed.
The Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl, also known as the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s; severe drought and a failure to apply dryland farming methods
Other measures by Hoover
The Reconstruction Finance Corporation: set up in 1932 with authority to lend up to $2 billion to rescue banks and other financial institutions in distress. The biggest banks ended up being given the most money, meaning smaller banks failed.
Emergency Relief and Construction Act of 1932: in order to be given this relief, states had to declare themselves bankrupt - many felt that Hoover had gone way too far
