Great Depresion

Introduction
Beginning in 1929 and lasting for about a decade, the Great Depression was an economic crisis on a global scale. It started and was centered in the United States, but it quickly spreadto countries throughout the world. In the United States, banks collapsed, businesses failed, and millions of people lost their jobs. The result was a level of poverty, hunger, and homelessness thatthe country had never before seen.i
Stock market crash
The causes of the Great Depression were complex, and to this day economists have not been able to explain them thoroughly. The depression iscommonly said to have begun, however, with the collapse of the U.S. stock market in 1929. During the mid-to-late 1920s many people had invested their money in stocks, or shares of ownership in companies.For a few years the value of stocks rose rapidly, making money for the investors. This encouraged people to buy more shares in the hope of making even greater profits. In September 1929, however,stock prices began to fall, and on October 29 they collapsed completely. After that day—which is remembered as Black Tuesday—shares were worth only a fraction of their original value.
Impact
There hadbeen financial crises before, and there have been some since. Never, however, has a collapse had such a devastating and long-term effect as the one that followed the 1929 market crash. Many people whohad invested in stocks lost everything they owned. Banks and other financial institutions were hurt as well. Some of them lost money in the stock market, but they struggled even more because peoplewho had borrowed money from them were unable to pay it back. Banks failed by the thousands. Factories and businesses closed because people could no longer afford to buy the goods they produced andsold. A great number of people had also purchased goods on credit, which meant they owed money to the businesses where they acquired the goods. When individuals did not have the money to pay these...