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Modern History ATAR > Crash & The Depression > Flashcards

Crash & The Depression Flashcards

1
Q

The Great Depression had how many people living at or under the poverty line?

A

42.5% of Americans

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2
Q

Share Market

A

Lets buyers and sellers negotiate prices and make trades

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3
Q

Shares

A

Units of equity ownership in a corporation

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4
Q

Stocks

A

Used to describe a slice of ownership of one or more companies

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5
Q

Buying on the margin

A

Involves getting a loan from your brokerage and using the money from the loan to invest in more securities than you can buy with your available money

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6
Q

The Crash: Saturday, 19 October 1929

A

3,488,100 shares are bought and sold
- Heavy trading

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7
Q

The Crash: Sunday, 20 October 1929

A

The market was closed
Headline from New York TIME ‘STOCKS DRIVEN DOWN AS WAVE OF SELLING ENGULFS MARKET’

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8
Q

The Crash: Monday, 21 October 1929

A

6,091,871 shares changed hands
Prices fell and rose

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9
Q

The Crash: Tuesday, 22 October 1929

A

Prices rose slighty

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10
Q

The Crash: Wednesday, 23 October 1929

A
  • Heavy selling of shares in-car accessory companies spread to other stocks.
  • 2,600,000 shares were sold at constantly falling prices during the last hour of trading.
  • At this time people decided that the time was now to get out and sell.
  • Speculators bought shares ‘on the margin’ and were told to put up more cash to reduce their loans. Yet they had to sell some shares to gain money to do.
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11
Q

The Crash: ‘Black’ Thursday. 24 October 1929

A
  • 12,894,650 shares traded in one day
  • Panic set in along with a scramble to sell as prices fell fast.
  • Sometimes no buyers for shares could be found.
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12
Q

The Crash: Friday, 25 October 1929

A
  • During Mid-day top bankers met and decided to support the market.
  • Prices steadied, even rose.
  • Richard Whitney (a broker for the huge firm of J.P. Morgan) bought shares for more than their current price.
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13
Q

The Crash: Saturday, 26 October 1929

A

President Herbert Hoover stated:
“ The fundamental business of the country, that is production and distribution of commodities, is on a sound and prosperous basis.”

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14
Q

The Crash: Monday, 28 October 1929

A
  • Heavy selling began again
  • 9,212,800 shares were bought and sold at rapidly falling prices.
  • 3 million shares were sold in the last hour of the business alone.
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15
Q

The Crash: Tuesday, 29 October 1929

A
  • 16,410,030 shares were traded on the worst day in the history of the New York Stock Market
  • Buyers could not be found and panic set in
  • Shares lost value
  • The wealthy and small shareholders were hit badly.
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16
Q

Explain the problems in the Stock Market

A
  • From 1921 onwards the stock market did well because US companies were doing well.
  • But from the mid-1920s, people began to speculate more, hoping to sell shares at a higher price, rather than because they were a strong business.
  • Share prices rose beyond the actual value of the company.
  • People who couldn’t afford it, began to speculate on the share market.
  • They borrowed a lot of money.
  • Expected to use profits to pay off the loan.
  • In Autumn 1929 some experts started selling heavily as they became worried about the weakness in the market.
  • This then started a selling trend which turned into PANIC!! :O
17
Q

The effects of The Great Depression in context of Unemployed

A
  • By 1933 # of unemployed people had risen to at least 14 million (24.9%)
  • Businesses were hit by falling demand, laid-off workers or reduced wages.
  • Car production cut by 80%
  • Road and building construction fell by 92%
  • Average hourly wage fell from 59 cents (1926) to 44 cents (1933)
  • People who lost their jobs rarely found other work
18
Q

The effects of The Great Depression in context of homelessness

A
  • Unemployment caused many to fall behind with their mortgage repayments.
    • Forced to sell their home or hand them over to the banks.
    • Those falling behind w/ rent payments were evicted.
  • Thousands taken in by relatives and many had nowhere to go, ending up on the streets.
  • Many lived in shelters made of packing cases and corrugated iron. Others slept on park benches or in warehouses. Some even deliberately were arrested to spend a night in jail because it meant there was a bed and some food.
  • Approx. 2 million men in 1932 travelled from place to place on railway freight wagons, seeking work, Many became tramps, living in tents by the tracks.
  • Thousands of children found living in railcars/close to the railway lines and riding in or under the freight wagons.
19
Q

What was the Urban population description of The Great Depression?

A

Some people say that they didn’t really notice a change, others noticed that it had gotten quieter around the streets and there were more vacant shops.
Hungry people.

20
Q

What was the Rural population description of The Great Depression?

A

Starving children and tired parents.
Crops being wasted.
“Dust Bowl” destruction.

21
Q

What was the migrant take on The Great Depression?

A
  • Farmers from the South and Midwest started to move away searching for work and better land to farm.
  • 1930s, dust storms destroyed what was left of the land causing more to leave for a hoping land of plenty: California.
  • Many farmers were from Oklahoma and Arkansas. - - - - - Known as the Okies and the Arkies, often they didn’t find a warm welcome.
  • John Steinbeck created a novel called ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ in 1939. The novel concentrates on a family who travelled from Oklahoma to California looking for a new start.
22
Q

What was the African American take on The Great Depression?

A

Discriminated against in work.
Suffered 1st
Suffered worst
Poor to start with
“ The percentage of Negroes among the unemployed runs sometimes four, five, siz times as high as their population percentage warrants… When jobs are scarce preference is given to the white worker in case of a vacancy; but worse than this, a fairly widespread tendency is observed to replace Negro workers with white. White girls have replaced Negro waiters, hotel workers, elevator operators.”

23
Q

What happened to theatres during the 1930s?

A

They boomed.

24
Q

How many Americans went to the cinema every week?

A

60-100 million

25
Q

How much did a cinema ticket cost?

A

25c

26
Q

Outline the look of the cinema and what it streamed.

A

Theatres were massive, grand buildings.
Most films were simple plotted musical extravaganzas

27
Q

What are the problems of The Depression?

A

Food prices falling and farmers’ incomes are very low
People not buying manufactured goods. Businesses collapsing or cutting back on production and staff
Can’t sell manufactured goods to foreign countries
Businesses failing because banks won’t lend them money. More unemployed.
Employers paying low wages. Workers have no money to buy goods.
People are hungry and homeless. Need help and jobs

28
Q

The fix for food prices falling and farmers’ incomes are very low:

A

The Far Board
- To help farmers, the Board bought surplus farm produce to keep prices up. But it had little effect because the slide in prices was so great and the Board did not have enough money.

29
Q

The fix for people not buying manufactured goods. Businesses collapsing or cutting back on production and staff.

A

Hoover offered no real solution to the falling demand for goods.

30
Q

The fix for Can’t sell manufactured goods to foreign countries.

A

Hawley-Smoot Act, 1930.
- In 1930, the Hawley-Smoot Act was passed which increased customs duties on a wide range of imported foodstuffs and manufactured items, by 50%. The government hoped that this would encourage people to buy cheaper American-made goods.
- However, few people could afford goods whether they were produced at home or abroad. Foreign countries retaliated by taxing American goods so trade fell even further.

31
Q

The fix for Businesses failing because banks won’t lend them money. More unemployed.

A

The Reconstruction Finance Corporation, 1932.
- This provided loans totalling $1500 million to businesses in order to help them to get back on their feet.

32
Q

The fix for Employers paying low wages. Workers have no money to buy goods.

A

Voluntary agreements.
- Hoover encouraged employers to make voluntary agreements with their workforce to keep wages up and production steady, but these did not work.

33
Q

The fix for People are Hungry and homeless. Need Help and Jobs.

A

Relief
- Hoover did not believe that the federal government should provide relief for the hungry and homeless. He saw this as the responsibility of local state governments and charities. But the state governments did not have enough money.

Government Schemes
- The government provided $423 million for a building programme to provide new jobs, e.g. the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River. This was an easy step in the right direction, but far more money was needed to provide a greater number of jobs.

34
Q

Outline how Americans felt with Hoover

A

Frustration grew as Americans saw how little the Hoover gov was supporting them.
Protests grew.
- 1930 New York City riot as police charged crowd of unemployed.
- Other protests and strikes across the US.
- Farmers blocked the transport of food demanding better prices.

35
Q

Bonus Marchers March 1932

A

Bonus Marchers March 1932
- Military veterans from WWI were asking for their pensions that were due in 1945 to be brought forward as Big sad relief.
- Approx. 150,000 men with their families marched into Washington and set up camp.

Hoover refused to pay
- Some of the Gov accused the marchers of being communists and criminals.
There were talks of a possible revolution if it wasn’t controlled.

36
Q

What was Hoover’s response to the Marchers in 1932?

A

Hoover called in the army led by General Douglas MacArthur.
- Protesters were ‘dispersed’ by:
- Armed troopers
- Tanks
- Tear gas (2 babies died)
- Camps were broken apart, some tents set on fire
The bonus marchers were forced out of Washington but Hoover’s reputation took a significant hit.
- Legacy of the march was important

Modern History ATAR (25 decks)

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