The Great Depression (not us, the U.S.) Flashcards
1
Q
Causes of the Great Depression
A
- buying on the margin
- overproduction
- tariffs
- income gap
2
Q
buying on the margin
A
- upper classes made profits with stocks, while lower classes stuggled to understand the business
- if people couldn’t afford to buy stock, they got loans from banks which usually resulted in them losing money in stocks and then not having the money to pay the banks back
- unpaid loans caused banks to crash
3
Q
overproduction
A
- mostly Western and Southern states
- during WWI, farmers were paid well and expanded
- after the war, the government paid them significantly less and demand and sales dropped
- happened with companies as well
4
Q
tariffs
A
- Underwood Tariff Bill lowered tariffs (Wilson)
- Smoot-Hawley Tariff (Hoover)
- increased tariffs eliminated foreign competition and created overdependence on American companies
- at the height, tariffs were 60%
5
Q
income gap
A
- richest 1% had a 10% increase in disposable income
- poorest 93% had a 10% decrease in disposable income
- upper classes spent more money while lower classes were running out of money to spend
- gap between rich and poor expanded
6
Q
“Black Thursday” (1929)
A
- stock market crashes when 16 million traded shares were deemed worthless and businesses fail
- hurt investors (Europe and Asia)
7
Q
Herbert Hoover
A
- Republican
- Inherited problems of the Great Depression from Harding and Coolidge
- Created Trickle Down Economics
- Believed in economy with recovery by producer/consumer relationship
- Created President’s Emergency Committee for Employment (PECE)
- Hawley-Smoot Tariff
- Reconstruction Finance Corporation
- Hoover Dam
8
Q
President’s Emergency Committee for Employment (PECE)
A
- helped coordinate state and local governments to promote job creation
9
Q
Hawley-Soot Tariff
A
- reduced flow of goods into the U.S. by imposing tariffs
- retaliatory tariffs and worsened economic isolation
10
Q
Reconstruction Finance Corporation (REC)
A
- gives out loans to companies on the verge of bankruptcy
11
Q
Hoover Dam
A
-huge government works project that emplyed 5,000 workers
12
Q
setbacks
A
- unemployment, hunger, homelessness, violence
- Trickle Down Economics was slow
13
Q
unemployment
A
- at the height, 12.8 million were unemployed (25%)
- prices and productivity fell by 1/3
- income fell by 40%
- homeless, bread lines, broken families
14
Q
Dust Bowl (1930s)
A
- droughts, high winds
- 3.5 million displaced Americans “okies”
- “black blizzards”
- by 1935, 35 million acres of land were useless and 125 million acres of land lost top soil
- dust pnemonia
15
Q
Dust Bowl (effects)
A
- Praries States Forest Project (plant trees to mitigate effects of wind)
- Soil Erosion Service (safe cultivation techniques)
