• Write down at least three things you know (or think you know) about the Great Depression.

• Bread Line

• Stock Market Crash

• Herbert Hoover

Dust Bowl

Okies

• Hooverville

• Hoover Flag

• Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR)

• The New Deal

Herbert Hoover and The Great Depression

1928-1932

Herbert Hoover

• World famous for organizing relief of Europe after WWI.

• Was Sec. of Commerce under Harding and Coolidge.

• Ran for Pres. In 1928 as the Republican nominee vs. Al Smith (the first Catholic to run for Pres. & Smith was also a “wet”).

• Hoover won in a landslide (although Smith won most of the big cities).

What Hoover Was For• Hoover had been an orphan who worked hard and eventually went

to Stanford.

• He made millions as a mining engineer.

• He believed in “rugged individualism.”

• Rugged Individualism = If the govt. stayed out of the way, individuals could succeed through hard work.

• He was not as conservative as Harding or Coolidge but still believed in a limited Govt.

• “A chicken in every pot.”

The Stock Market Crash

• During the 1920s, many investors bought stocks on margin.

– The customer only put 5% down and borrowed the rest from the broker.

– The broker financed the loans by borrowing from banks.

– The banks loaned $ from their customers accounts.

– THE PRICES ONLY STAY HIGH AS LONG AS INVESTORS KEEP PUTTING $ INTO THE MARKET.

– OPEN BOOK TO PAGE 419.

• Speculation drove the prices of stocks up artificially.

• Some investors began to sell their stocks and prices began to drop.

• Brokers began calling in their margins which many people could not pay.

• Brokers than started to sell large amounts of stock to recoup their loses.

• This caused a Panic.

Review• 1. Explain buying stocks on “margin” and how this led to

the stock market crash.

• 2. What year did the stock market crash?

• A = 1929• 3. Who was President when the stock market crashed?• A = Herbert Hoover• 4. What was the name of Hoover’s political philosophy

and what did it mean?• A = “Rugged Individualism” • 5. What was historic about the 1928 election?• A = 1st in which ha Catholic ran (Al Smith—he lost to

Hoover).

Black Tuesday

• Tuesday, October 29, 1929 was what many have called, “the most devastating day in the history of markets.”

• This was the day that began the panic—people trying to unload their stocks.

• When it (the Crash) was all over, over $30-billion in stock value was wiped out.

Bank Failures• When the brokers couldn’t re-pay the $ they had

borrowed from the banks, the banks couldn’t give money to all of their customers.

• Soon more and more people began demanding their $ from banks at the same time and this caused banks to fail (go out of business).

• When a bank goes under, people loose their $.• By 1933, more than 9,000 banks had closed.

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Stock Market Crash did NOT cause the Great Depression

• 1. Overproduction—too many goods =Depressed farms and industry. And as people earn less (or loose their jobs), they have less $ to buy things.

• 2. Unequal Wealth Distribution —Still a lot of poor people which meant that they can’t buy goods.

• 3. Govt. chose restrictive monetary policy —high interest rates and curtailed the amount of money in circulation.

• 4. Decline in Foreign Trade —High tariffs and no loans to foreign countries meant that those countries couldn’t buy American goods. .

Go to Hoover’s Response and the Okies

Causes of Great Depression

• 1. Lack of Diversification —Construction & Automobiles.

• 2. Unequal distribution of wealth=imbalance between supply and demand (overproduction).

• 3. Credit structure of economy —Farmer’s debts & investment in stock market & too many people buying on creidt what they could not afford.

• 4. Declining Exports:

• A. High tariffs (Smoot-Hawley Tariff).

• B. Less demand

• C. European financial difficulties.

• 5. International Debt Structure —Countries like Germany needed more loans to pay of war reparations.

Federal Reserve Board’s Response

• Raised interest rates in 1931.

• = less money in circulation.

• Severe Contraction.