Why Was The Great Depression Inevitable

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The Great Depression was the longest economic downturn that has ever occurred in the history of the United States. The crash of the stock market set off great debts. People walked the streets looking for non-existent employment, international trade was dramatically declining, and the credit structure only caused more debts. With so many failures, the Great Depression was indeed inevitable.
The economy of the United States had a period of almost uninterrupted prosperity in the late 1920’s due to the new technology and stock market success, but in less than a year by 1929, the stock market fell to pieces leaving millions in debt. Stocks that had once been worth thousands of dollars were now worthless. Millions of people were left unemployed and …show more content…
As trade tariffs grew and the price of crops hit the floor farmers were knee deep in debt and could not afford to pay off what they had borrowed from banks. Under those circumstances smaller banks also began to collapse due to that all the loans they had given were not being paid back. Bigger banks were also at risk. Bank owners with huge investments in the stock market were also loosing millions of dollars when the market plunged and their loans were not being paid off either. The failure of banks only worsened the crisis. Despite the crisis president Herbert Hoover did almost everything in his power to alleviate the depression but had almost no success. He advised the business leaders to create a program to help the economy recover but with economic conditions only worsening, their plan also failed. In 1929 he proposed the Agricultural Marketing Act to help farmers with the decline in prices. Along with this act he also raised tariffs on international goods to protect them from competition. There seemed to be nothing to help the economy because despite the efforts of Hoover and Hawley-Smoot prices still declined. While he did make small improvements the constant drop of the economy made all his plans a
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