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The Election of 1928
Herbert Hoover, who could point to years of prosperity under Republican administration, ran for president in 1928 against democrat Alfred Smith. Hoover won with the slogan "We in America are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before." It was clear that Americans liked Republican leadership. -
Stock market crashes
stock prices peaked and fell, investors quickly sold their stock and pulled out. And panicked investors unloaded their shares...but there is more to come. This signaled the beginning of the Great Depression. -
Bank Failures 1929-1933
After the stock market crash many people wanted to withdraw their money from the bank. But they banks also invested the money into the stock market. Therefore 600 banks closed in 1929 and by 1933, 11.000 national banks closed. The government did not protect bank accounts and millions of people lost their savings. -
Uneven distribution of income
The income of the wealthiest 1 percent of the population rose 75%, most of the families lived on less than 2,500 per year which is a minimum. This unequal distribution of income meant that most Americans could not participate fully in economic advances of the 1920s. One of the reasons of the Great Depression. -
Hoover Dam
Hoover proposed to finance the dam's construction by using profits from sales of the electric power that the am would generate. It would be the world's tallest dam and the second largest. This dam provided regular water supply to California and jobs for many Americans. -
Black Tuesday
The stock market completely fell out shareholders frantically tried to sell before prices plunged lower. 16.4 million shares dumped, and people that bought stocks on credit, now had huge debits, many lost their saving. In mid-November investors lost $30 billion the same amount spent on WW1. -
Hawley- Smoot Tariff
This new tariff established the highest protective tariff in United States history. This was designed to protect American farmers and manufactures from foreign competition.The results were the opposite though the tariff made the unemployment worse in industries that could no longer export goods to Europe. Trade fell 40%. -
The Depression of rural areas
most farmers could not grow food for their families. With falling prices and debt, thousand of farmers lost their land. More than 400,000 farms were lost through foreclosure because of lack of payments. -
Direct Intervention
The Federal Home Loan Bank Act was signed by Hoover that lowered mortgage rates for homeowners and allowed farmers to refinance their farm loans and avoid foreclosure. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation was also approved by Congress, which authorized up to 2 billion for emergency financing for banks, and other government places. This was believed to higher wages, but businesses continued to fail. -
Bonus Army
The Bonus Army was a group of veterans that went to Washington dc wanting their compensation for wartime service. A group of soldier then gassed more than 1,000 people. -
Unemployment leaped
millions of workers lost their jobs unemployment leaped from 3% in 1929 to 25% in 1933. And those who had jobs faced paycuts, the economy was plummeting. -
The Dust Bowl
The drought began and wreaked havoc on the Great Plains. Farmers from Texas to North Dakota had used tractors to break up the grasslands and plant millions of acres of new farmland. Then they exhausted the land and overproduced crops, when the drought hit the wind scattered topsoil. The windstorm picked up millions of tons of dust from the plains and carried it to East Coast cities -
Boxing Heavyweight
African American Joe Lewis faced German Max Schmeling for boxing 57 million American would listen on the radio. Lewis was the hop of 50% unemployed African Americans. This was also political to US vs Germany who was better. Schmeling won the match but Lewis won the rematch.
