Myth or Fact? The Great Depression

The Great Depression began in 1929. The stock market crashed. People freaked out and rushing to banks to get their money out. The money wasn’t there because it had disappeared along with the stock market crash. The government’s intervention didn’t help at all. The banks loaned too much money. The free market before hand was doing good it would be beneficial and then a downfall and switch between the two naturally. Government’s involvement helped lead to a great downfall. Hoover was president in March 1929 and “during [Roosevelt’s] campaign Hoover for spending and taxing too much, boosting the national debt, choking off trade, and putting millions on the dole.  He accused the president of ‘reckless and extravagant’ spending, of thinking ‘that we ought to center control of everything in Washington as rapidly as possible,’ and of presiding over ‘the greatest spending administration in peacetime in all of history’” (Lawrence Reed, The Great Myths of the Great Depression). After Roosevelt’s election he didn’t do any better. In the first months he had sixteen acts made and passed by congress, in order to get out of the great depression; such as the National Industrial Recovery Act, the Emergency Banking Relief Act, and National Employment Act.  President Roosevelt broke his promise. He created the New Deal that controlled a huge part of the economy. Unemployment increased along with inflation. The government’s interference and creation of many regulations caused a greater downfall. The economy ended up in a lot worse shape then it could have been.