I try to learn more in depth about topics that interest me. I was reading about the Great Depression, but it is so hard to understand for me what exactly cause it, as I read it, it feels like a mix of fancy words that don’t tell me much (likely due to my lack of knowledge and english not being my 1st language). So, could anyone explain me in simple words what exactly cause the Great Depression?
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ELI5: the combination of factors that would cause hardship together caused the great depression. These factors include – stock market crash, bank runs/bank failings, international trade issues, drought/dustbowl, and hold standard/money issues.
Stock market crash – always an issue this one was particularly problematic since people were buying stock with loans which made it much much worse.
Bank runs – some banks failed and people ran to get their money causing more to fail.
Dustbowl – people made bumper crop after bumper crop. The soils suffered and when farmers couldn’t pay loans they left the land. The drought and unused farm land created huge dust storms and furthered the dustbowl issue.
International trade and money issues – tariffs and retaliatory tariffs hurt the economy. The gold standard resulted in deflation. People horded money instead of investing it. Banks fell so they didn’t deposit money so the banks could invest. This created issues in the economy.
Here are two articles for more in depth explanation. https://www.britannica.com/story/causes-of-the-great-depression
https://www.history.com/news/great-depression-causes
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