The Great Depression

The Stock Market Crashes

The Market Crashes Black Thursday

Stocks begin to drop following Dow Jones peak

Brokers called in loans while others lent more

Wednesday, Oct 23, 1929 - Dow dropped 21 points in 1 hour

Thursday, Oct. 24 - prices drop more, loss of $3 billion

Black Tuesday

To halt panic, bankers pooled money to purchase stock

Prices stabilize briefly but drop again on Monday

$30 billion loss on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 1929

Impact of the Crash on Americans 4 million stockholders lost everything in the crash

Americans lost money, jobs, farms and homes - EVERYTHING

Effect on Workers and Farmers

As income & profits dropped, factories closed, cutting jobs & wages

1932, 12 million unemployed

Small businesses - restaurants & movie houses closed

Servants, maids & other household workers were laid off

Low farm prices became even lower

Great Depression followed due to lack of government action

Banks were forced to close

Rural banks had already been destroyed due to unpaid farm loans

City banks began to close their doors

Banks called in loans but could not receive repayment

Depositors rushed to withdrawal money but it wasn’t there

Banks had loaned their money to other people

Within 3 years, 5500 banks close

By 1933, 9 million savings accounts were closed

Impact of the Crash on the World

Following WWI, U.S businesses invested heavily in Germany

Germany could pay the $33 billion in reparations to France and England so long as the U.S continued to invest

France and England relied on Germany’s reparations payments to pay the debt owed to the U.S.

When the U.S economy collapsed, investment in Germany stopped

The End