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The Great Depression and World War II

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Great Depression and WWII - NCHP Block 6 Many Americans still think that the Great Depression was caused by the stock market crashing, on October 29, 1929. What is true that most economists think now is that the stock market crash alone could not be fully to blame. There were many factors into creating the nationwide depression. The first being that the “Roaring 20’s” was the first time North Carolinians and their American counterparts could buy a lot more of the new consumer items, like washers and toasters, on newly available credit. The wealthy elite along with the new American business class, could not wait to come down to and enjoy leisure activities like the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina, to spend all of that disposable free-flowing money. This was also one of the first times that average, middle-class people had more freedom because they had more income. In addition, banks in our state, as well as other states in the union, were small and unprotected. That means that when a bank went bankrupt, they could not pay back all of their loans or savings. Many farmers in North Carolina started to mechanize their new, larger farms to compete with other farms. This increased supply and dropped demand, lowered the price of food and made it harder to pay back the loans for the new tractors and machinery when the banks got into trouble for over-extending credit. Our state, like our small banks, did not depend on handouts from the Federal Government like

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