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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Katherine Derbyshire who wrote (25046)	10/7/1998 10:18:00 PM
From: Gottfried	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 70976

Katherine, Great Depression the severe U.S. economic crisis of the 1930s, supposedly precipitated by the 1929 stock market crash. Certain causative factors are generally accepted: overproduction of goods; a tariff and war-debt policy that curtailed foreign markets for American goods; and easy money policies that led to overexpansion of credit and fantastic speculation on the stock market. At the depth (1933) of the Depression, 16 million people-one third of the labor force-were unemployed. The effects were felt in Europe and contributed to Adolph HITLER's rise in Germany. The policies of the NEW DEAL relieved the situation, but complete recovery came only with the heavy defense spending of the 1940s. See also DEPRESSION. encyclopedia.com GM

To: Katherine Derbyshire who wrote (25046)	10/7/1998 11:17:00 PM
From: Jerome	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 70976

Katherine, " Causes of the great Depression" Many factors are quoted and all are partially true. Mt readings of history bring me to these conclusions. 1) Passage of the Smoot Hawley Act. (restricting trade and adding sizable tariffs to everything was a primary culprit) 2) The FED in the face of the depression raised interest rates repeatedly. 3) President Hoover begged congress to enact banking reform that would stop banks from lending money for the express purpose of buying stocks on speculation. Congress refused saying that buying stocks was good for the country. 4) Gold stocks were the tech stocks of the 1920's. There were pyramid schemes on top of other schemes. The gold craze probably ruined the stock market for years to come. 5) Since the world was undergoing financial insecurity, the obvious choice was to set up high tariffs and export your way out of this mess. England and Frace were the leaders of this movement and the U.S .acted in retaliation. Seemed like the smart thing to do at the time. 6) Herbert Hoover had all the right ideas at the time, but once the depression came he had no credibility with congress in terms of getting legislation passed. He was a mining engineer and a self made millionaire (regarded as one of the world's greatest mining engineers). Stanford University owes much of its growth to the millions he left to it. Just my historical perspective, I'm sure that there are many other better balanced viewpoints.......Jerome 7) Most libraries will have about 75 to 100 books about Kennedy, about 20 to 25 about the Roosevelts, and maybee 1 or two on Hoover. In spite of his humanitarism the name Hoover and Depression are forever linked.