Causes of the Great Depression
What term describes the government's lack of involvement in business during the 1920s (often seen as a cause of the Great Depression)
Laissez-Faire
What event is known as the start of the Great Depression?
The Stock Market Crash of 1929
Who became the "new heroes" of the Great Depression?
Bank robbers like Bonnie & Clyde and John Dillinger
What are 2 causes of the Dust Bowl?
Over farming
Drought
What is the New Deal also known as?
Alphabet Soup
Name 2 economic practices of the 1920s that caused the Great Depression.
Overproduction
Over speculation/ Buying on the Margin
Weak Banking System
Uneven distribution of wealth
Installment Plans
Define the term "Economic Depression"
A severe and prolonged downturn in economic activity.
What does "riding the rails" refer to?
Teenagers who ran away from home, jumping on trains or following rail tracks in search of work.
What did people do to survive dust storms?
Put wet cloths against their face.
What are 2 New Deal Programs that still exist today?
Social Security Act (SSA), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC), the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).
How did Overproduction cause the Great Depression?
Companies did not adjust their production to meet demand, they just stored away excess product. This drove prices down and led to lower profits and unemployment.
What are 3 key traits of an economic depression?
A rise in unemployment, poverty, and homelessness.
Explain the rule of last hired, first fired and who it mostly affected.
Employers would fire Black Americans first, using that they were last hired as an excuse (even if it is not true).
How did the Dust Bowl impact the American economy?
Livestock died in mass numbers, making it harder to get fresh meat. Topsoil blew away, making it more difficult to farm (and harder to get fresh crops from the mid/southwest.
What were 2 limitations of the New Deal?
Not all groups of people benefited equally from the programs
Some critics also felt that the programs went too far and expanded government too much
Others thought it didn’t go far enough
Name 2 problems with the U.S. banking system in the 1920s.
Invested in the stock market using customer money.
Lots of small, private banks that did not have federal support.
Required minimal screening before giving out loans.
Did not have enough money to insure customers' money.
Give an example of the Ripple Effect.
A stock investor loses money due to a stock market crash. He cannot pay back his broker.
The broker does not get paid back by any of his borrowers, cannot pay his bills.
The company the investor had stock in is forced to lay off employees.
Employees cannot spend money at small businesses; they close down.
Farmers lose profit from farms; their farms close
Banks do not receive loan payments, have to clos.
Bank customers lose their savings.
Why was the Indian New Deal not fully effective?
Native Americans had no say in the development or implementation of programs.
What type of work did many Americans/ American families transition to due to the Dust Bowl?
How did FDR reassure the American people
1. During his inaugural address
2. Throughout his presidency
1. "We have nothing to fear but fear itself"
2. Fireside Chats
What is overspeculation and how did it cause the Great Depression.
Making too many high risk investments with the hope they pay off and spending too much money for it to ever pay off.
Name 3 efforts that President Herbert Hoover made to fix the Great Depression
Hoover Dam
Hawley-Smoot Tariff
Gives $ to businesses
Compare 1 positive element of Asian American experiences in Great Depression to 1 negative element of Latinx experiences in the Great Depression.
Asian Americans - Development of more welcoming communities (Chinatowns)
Mexican Repatriation
What can we do to prevent a Dust Bowl in the modern World?
Avoid over farming, take measures to address droughts, create programs to support farms/farmer.
You are an unmarried man who is 22 years old and needs a job in an environmental field. What New Deal program would help you?
The CCC