Great Depression Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! == Overview == {{Multiple image | image1 = US Unemployment from 1910-1960.svg | image2 = 1929 wall street crash graph.svg | caption1 = The unemployment rate in the U.S. during 1910β60, with the years of the Great Depression (1929β39) highlighted | caption2 = The [[Dow Jones Industrial Average]], 1928β1930 | align = left }} After the [[Wall Street Crash of 1929]], where the [[Dow Jones Industrial Average]] dropped from 381 to 198 over the course of two months, optimism persisted for some time. The stock market rose in early 1930, with the Dow returning to 294 (pre-depression levels) in April 1930, before steadily declining for years, to a low of 41 in 1932.<ref>{{cite web |title=1998/99 Prognosis Based Upon 1929 Market Autopsy |url=https://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_98/vronsky060698.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517075810/https://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_98/vronsky060698.html |archive-date=May 17, 2008 |access-date=May 22, 2008 |publisher=Gold Eagle}}</ref> At the beginning, governments and businesses spent more in the first half of 1930 than in the corresponding period of the previous year. On the other hand, consumers, many of whom suffered severe losses in the stock market the previous year, cut expenditures by 10%. In addition, beginning in the mid-1930s, a [[Dust Bowl|severe drought]] ravaged the agricultural heartland of the U.S.<ref name="drought">{{cite web |title=Drought: A Paleo Perspective β 20th Century Drought |url=https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/drought/drght_history.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090330022940/http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/drought/drght_history.html |archive-date=March 30, 2009 |access-date=April 5, 2009 |publisher=[[National Climatic Data Center]]}}</ref> Interest rates dropped to low levels by mid-1930, but expected [[deflation]] and the continuing reluctance of people to borrow meant that consumer spending and investment remained low.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hamilton |first=James |year=1987 |title=Monetary Factors in the Great Depression |journal=Journal of Monetary Economics |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=145β69 |doi=10.1016/0304-3932(87)90045-6}}</ref> By May 1930, automobile sales declined to below the levels of 1928. Prices, in general, began to decline, although wages held steady in 1930. Then a [[deflationary spiral]] started in 1931. Farmers faced a worse outlook; declining crop prices and a Great Plains drought crippled their economic outlook. At its peak, the Great Depression saw nearly 10% of all Great Plains farms change hands despite federal assistance.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Great Depression |url=https://drought.unl.edu/DroughtBasics/DustBowl/TheGreatDepression.aspx |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180329184059/http://drought.unl.edu/DroughtBasics/DustBowl/TheGreatDepression.aspx |archive-date=March 29, 2018 |access-date=March 29, 2018 |website=drought.unl.edu |language=en-US}}</ref> The decline in the [[Economy of the United States|U.S. economy]] was the factor that pulled down most other countries at first; then, internal weaknesses or strengths in each country made conditions worse or better.{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}} Frantic attempts by individual countries to shore up their economies through [[protectionism|protectionist]] policies β such as the 1930 U.S. [[SmootβHawley Tariff Act]] and retaliatory tariffs in other countries β exacerbated the collapse in global trade, contributing to the depression.<ref>{{cite book |title=Historic Events for Students: The Great Depression |date=July 2002 |publisher=Gale |isbn=978-0-7876-5701-7 |editor-last1=Richard |editor-first1=Clay Hanes |edition=Volume I}}</ref> By 1933, the economic decline pushed world trade to one third of its level compared to four years earlier.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tignor |first= Robert L. |title=Worlds together, worlds apart: a history of the world from the beginnings of humankind to the present |date=October 28, 2013 |isbn=978-0-393-92207-3 |edition=Fourth |location=New York |oclc=854609153 |publisher=W. W. Norton }}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page