President Coolidge decided not to run again in the 1928 for President. This cleared the way for Herbert Hoover to run on the Republican ticket.

Transcription

1 The Causes of the Great Depression

2 President Coolidge decided not to run again in the 1928 for President. This cleared the way for Herbert Hoover to run on the Republican ticket.

3 Herbert Hoover Background Who kept the Belgians' black bread buttered? Who fed the world when millions muttered? Who knows the needs of every nation? Who keeps the keys of conservation? Who fills the bins when mines aren't earning? Who keeps the homefires banked and burning? Who'll never win a presidential position? For he isn't a practical politician? Hoover--that's all!" The Chicago Daily News 1923 At age 10 he was orphaned At age 17 he attended the first class at Stanford University graduating 4 years later in 1895 Hoover was a successful mining engineer He was appointed the head of the new Food Administration during WW1 by President Wilson In WW1, organized food drive for starving civilians in Belgium After the war he returned to Europe as the director-general of the American Relief Administration to organize the supply and distribution of food and relief materials to more than twenty nations affecting one-third of the population of Europe, thereby facilitating the emergence of stable economies in the war-torn region. Had spent over seven years as Secretary of Commerce in the Harding and Coolidge Administration Coolidge privately called him The Wonder Boy Great Humanitarian

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5 Alfred E. Smith The Democrats chose Alfred E. Smith as their candidate. Smith was the four-time governor of New York. He as an Irish-American from New York s Lower East Side and the first Roman Catholic ever nominated to run for President.

6 Campaign Issues By 1928 Prohibition had become a major issue among voters. Hoover was considered a dry because he favored the ban of liquor sales. Smith disliked the ban and was considered a wet The candidates religious differences sparked a smear campaign against Smith. Many Protestants were willing to believe that the Catholic Church financed the Democratic Party so they could rule the U.S. when Smith was elected. Hoover a Quaker was embarrassed by this and tried to quash them, but the charges seriously damaged Smith s candidacy.

7 Smith s biggest problem was the prosperity of the 1920s, for which the Republicans took full credit. Republican candidates promised to continue the trend with such slogans as two cars in every garage. Hoover received over 6 million more votes than Smith and won the Electoral College in a landslide, 444 to 87.

8 On March 4, 1929, an audience of 50,000 stood in the rain to hear Hoover s inaugural speech. Sound movie cameras covered the inauguration for the first time and radios broadcast the address worldwide. I have no fears for the future of our country, Hoover said. It is bright with hope.

9 The wave of optimism that swept Hoover into the White House also drove up stock prices to new highs. The stock market was established as a system for buying and selling shares of companies. Sometimes circumstances in the stock market lead to a long period of rising stock prices, which is known as a bull market. In the late 1920s about 3 million Americans, or roughly 10 percent of households, owned stocks.

10 As the market continued to soar, many investors began to buy stocks on margin, meaning they made only a small cash down payment as low as 10 percent of the price. With $1,000 an investor could by 10,000 worth of stock. The other $9,000 would come as a loan from a stockbroker, who earned both a commission on the sale and interest on the loan. The broker held the stock as collateral. As long as stock prices kept rising, buying on margin was safe. For example, an investor who borrowed money to buy 10,000 worth of stock had to wait only a short time for them to rise to $11,000 in value. The investor could then sell the stocks, repay the loan and make a $1,000 dollar profit

11 The problem came if the stocks began to fall. To protect the loan, a broker. If could issue a margin call, demanding the investor repay the loan at once. As a result, many investors were very sensitive to any fall in stock prices. If prices fell, they had to sell quickly, or they might not be able to repay their loans.

12 Before the late 1920s, the price investors paid for stocks generally reflected the stocks true value. If a company made a profit or had good future sales prospects, its stock prices rose, while a drop in earnings or an aging product line could send the price down. In the late 1920s, however, hordes of new investors bid prices up without regard to a company s earnings and profits. Buyers, hoping to make a fortune overnight, engaged in speculation. Instead of investing in the future of the companies, speculators took risks, betting that the market would continue to climb, thus enabling them to make money quickly.

13 The Crash The Bull market lasted only as long as investors continued putting new money into the system. By the later half of 1929, the market was running out of new customers. In September professional investors sensed danger and began to sell off their holdings. Prices began to slip. Other investors sold their shares to pay the interest on their brokerage loans. Prices continued to fall.

14 On Monday, October 21, Groucho Marx, the comic star of stage and screen, was awakened by a telephone call from his broker. You d better get down here with some cash to cover your margin, the broker said. The stock had plunged. The dazed comedian had to pay back money he had borrowed to buy stock, which was now selling for far less than he paid. Other brokers made similar calls. Frightened customers put their stocks up for sale at a frenzied pace, driving the market into a tailspin.

15 On October 24, a day that came to be called Black Thursday, the market plummeted even further. Marx was wiped out. He had earned a small fortune from plays and films but in the blink of an eye it was all gone. He was not the only one. The following week on Tuesday Oct. 29 (Black Tuesday) prices took their steepest dive yet. On that day stocks lost 10 to 15 Billion dollars in value.

16 By mid-november stock prices had dropped by 1/3. Some $30 billion dollars was lost, a sum roughly equal to the total wages of all Americans in The stock market crash was not the major cause of the Great Depression, but it undermined the economy s ability to hold out against its other weaknesses.

17 The Banks The market crash severely weakened the nation s banks in two ways. First, many banks had lent money to stock speculators. Second, many banks had invested depositors money in the stock market, hoping for higher returns than they could get by using the money for conventional loans. When the stock market collapsed banks lost money on their investments when the speculators defaulted on their loans.

18 Having suffered serous losses, many banks cut back on the loans they made. With less credit available, consumers and businesses were unable to borrow as much money as they had previously. This helped put the economy into a recession. Some banks lost more than they had assets for and were forced to close. At the time, the government did not insure bank deposits; therefore, if a bank collapsed, customers lost their savings.

19 The bank failures in 1929 and 1930 triggered a crisis of confidence in the banking system. News of the bank failures worried Americans. Bank runs happened when the depositors decided to withdraw all their money at one time. The problem is most banks make a profit by lending money from depositors and collecting interest on loans. The bank holds on to only a fraction of the depositors money to cover everyday business, such as occasional withdrawals. The problem is that if too many people withdraw their money at one time the bank will eventually collapse. During the first two years of the depression, more than 3,000 banks (over 10 percent of the nation s total) were forced to close.

20 The Roots of the Depression The Uneven Distribution of Income Most economist agree that overproduction was a key cause of the Depression. More efficient machinery increased the production capacity of both factories and farms. Most Americans did not earn enough to buy up the flood of goods they helped produce. While manufacturing output per person hour increased rose 32 percent the average worker s wage increased only 8 percent. In 1929 the top percent of all Americans earned 30 percent of the nation s income. By contrast, 2/3 of the families earned less than $2,500 a year leaving them with little expendable income.

21 During the 1920s many Americans bought high cost items of the installment plan. Some buyers could not pay off their debts without reducing other purchases. This low consumption then led manufacturers to cut production and lay off employees. The slowdown in retail manufacturing had repercussions throughout the economy. When radio sales slumped, for example, makers cut back on their orders of copper wire, wood cabinets, and glass radio tubes. Montana copper mines, and Ohio glassworkers, in turn lost their jobs. Jobless workers had to cut back purchases, further reducing sales. This of chain reaction put more an more Americans out of work.

22 The Loss of Export Sales Many jobs might have been saved if American manufacturers had sold more goods abroad. As the bull market of the 1920s accelerated, U.S. banks made high-interest loans to stock speculators instead of leading money to foreign companies as a result these companies purchased fewer American goods.

23 To make matters worse in June of 1930 Congress passed the Hawley- Smoot Tariff, raising the average tariff rate to the highest level it had ever been. It was aimed at protecting American manufacturers from foreign competition. It raised the price of imports and as a result Americans bought less of them. Foreign countries raised their own tariffs against American products thus causing decreased sales of American products overseas. In 1932 U.S. exports had dropped to 1/5 of that it had been in This hurt both American Companies and farmers.

24 Hoover and the Limits of Individualism Hoover often used the phrase "rugged individualism" to refer to his governing philosophy, which promoted self-reliance and limited government intervention in the lives of Americans. Hoover advocated for limited regulation over the nation's economic system in exchange for greater volunteerism. Hoover emphasized that rugged individualism was not laissez-faire, and that it in fact denounced laissez-faire economics. Providing large-scale humanitarian efforts during the Great Depression, Hoover feared, would injure "the initiative and enterprise of the American people." Unfortunately, this individualist approach had little effect, and the economy continued to suffer for years.

25 Mistakes by the Federal Reserve Just as consumers were able to buy more goods on credit, access to easy money propelled the stock market. Instead of raising interest rates to curb excessive speculation, the Federal Reserve Board kept its rates very low. The Board s failure to raise interest rates contributed to the Depression in two ways. First, by keeping rates low, it encouraged member banks to make risky loans

26 Second, low interest rates led business leaders to think the economy was still expanding. As a result, they borrowed more money to expand production, which led to overproduction when sales were falling. When the Depression hit, companies had to lay off workers to cut costs. Then the Fed made another mistake. It raised interest rates, tightening credit. The economy continued to spiral downward