The+Great+Depression-+sm

The Great Depression started because the Stock Market experienced a long period of rising stock prices, or a bull market. By 1929 approximately 10 percent of American households owned stocks. On October 29, 1929 also known as Black Tuesday, the stock market had plunged the stock market lost between $10 And $15 billion in value. The Market crash weakend the nation's banks in two way. One by 1929 banks had loaned nearly $6 billion to stock speculators. And Second many banks had invested depositors money in the stock market, hoping for higher returns than they could get by using the money for loans. Some banks could not absorb the losses they suffered and were forced to close. The government did not insure bank deposits, so if a bank collapsed, customers lost their savings. Another cause of the Great Depression was Overproduction. Most Americans did not earn enough to buy up the flood of goods they helped to produce. Many nations did not have the money to but American- manufactured goods or crops. The Great Depression caused large numbers of people to lose their jobs and propert making Life During the Depression dificult.