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How Did Black Thursday Contribute To Capitalism

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Black Thursday helped cause something terrible, so terrible that it is still the worst economic depression in the history of United States capitalism. Although Thursday, October 24, 1929, was the first day of the crash, it was far from the worst. The following Tuesday, Black Tuesday, set a new record: 16,410,030 of stocks traded in a single day, which broke the record 12,894,650 set on Black Thursday (Bierman). The crash was a large contributor to the Great Depression, but fallout would have been relatively small if it was not for other factors (Appleby). The stock market was thriving until late 1929 when the fragile structure started to crumble (“The Wall Street Crash, 1929”). There were a few ups and downs leading up to the crash but nothing …show more content…

This helped to push the economy further into recession. Some people who had money in banks made bank runs which is “when many depositors decide to withdraw their money at one time,” (Appleby). This caused ten percent of the nation’s banks to close within the upcoming years. People did a worse job managing the problem at every turn and the problem only and the recession worsened. Sales slowed down so the production of raw materials slumped, and people in this industry had lower wages and some were laid off so they could not buy the goods they helped produce before, and they bought less (Appleby). This cycle continued throughout the great depression. The public was not the only group to make mistakes. The government raised tariffs which slashed the rate of exportation by eighty percent (Appleby). The Federal Reserve made the critical error of keeping interest rates low, causing businesses and investors to think the economy was still expanding so they bought more stock. After The Great Crash, it raised interest rates and caused more recession to follow (DeGrace). Efficient machines also contributed to the Great Depression by requiring less people to create more goods and by having the ability to create more goods than what people could afford to buy.

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