The Wall Street Crash of 1929 followed one of the most dramatic economic booms that America and the world had ever seen. As everything was going so well, millions people decided to invest in the stock market. Banks were prepared to lend money to people investing in stocks as the stock market kept going up. Therefore people borrowed more and more money that caused stock prices to skyrocket to unrealistic highs. The rapidly rising share prices just gave people more confidence and persuaded more people to borrow money to invest (read more…)

There are quite a few causes of the Great Depression but the most significant are the long-term factors. The massive cost of World War One had damaged the world’s strongest economies, leaving them debt ridden and weak. Consumer debt also increased dramatically in the 1920’s leading up to the great depression, with the extensive use of credit to buy cars and the vast increase in home mortgages (read more…)