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Great Depression Informative Speech

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The Great Depression
How many of you have heard about the Great Depression? Nice, well today I am going to teach you a bit more about it.

Let's go back to before the Depression had started. It was the 1920s and America was crackling with energy. World War 1 had ended in 1918. The soldiers were home and the economy was booming. It was the Go-Go twenties, people were ready to go out and have a good time. Every night middle class americans crowded the theaters and other places and in homes across the country jazz music blared out of brand new radios. During the Roaring 20s all sorts of new products were being made. Products such as; telephones, refrigerators, fans electric heaters, and vacuum cleaners. Of course, some of these products had been …show more content…

Stock sales provided companies with the money needed to expand their businesses, and in return, the stocks served as investments for the people who bought them by increasing in value as a company became successful. Many americans and some economists believed that the stock market had become a ure bet. Almost everyone saw the stock market as a sure way to become rich. Some thought that the stock market was such a great investment that they borrowed money from their stockbrokers to buy more stock. Stockbrokers are people who sell and buy stocks and shares in companies on behalf of other people. As the value of stocks went up more people invested in the market this pushed prices up even …show more content…

Loud bells rang to signal the openings at the New York Stock Exchange, but the following day loud cries of, “Sell! Sell!” were incredibly loud. Everyone wanted out of the stock market. A guard who had witnessed the shock felt by many stockbrokers at the stock exchange said, “They roared like a lot of lions and tigers. They hollered and screamed. It was like a bunch of crazy people. Every once in awhile, when a big company would take another tumble, you’d see some poor devil fall to the floor.” As the stocks lost their value the wealthy people lost their fortunes. Many middle class americans lost their life savings and hope. People Flooded onto New York City’s Wall Street, (the center of finance in the United States,) hoping to find out what had happened to their money. Unfortunately, there was nothing that anyone could do, their money was gone. By the end of the day more than 16 million stocks had been sold, a record that would stand for forty years.The Dow Jones Industrial Average had dropped another 12% that day. Thousands of investors had lost everything. To this day, October 29, 1929 is known as ‘Black

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