The+Great+Depression-steph+baker

How It All Got Started

In October 1929, the stock market prices on the New York Stock Exchange plummeted. This no only strained personal investors, but banks as well as companies. Many people were going to get their money out of the banks but the banks did not have that much money to give out. By 1933, 11,000 of the U.S.'s 25,000 banks had failed. The country was in a lot of trouble. There was reduced levels of spending, but a high population. By 1932, unemployment had risen: 20-30 of the workforce. Farmers were losing money and land. Families were starving and living in towns constructed of abandoned train cars and scraps known as "Hoovervilles". Herbert Hoover was president at this time and underestimated this situation. He assumed it would get better on its own.It didn't. In 1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt became president in the midst of The Great Depression.