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Great Depression/Oil Crisis/Bank Crisis

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Submitted By jzuccaro
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There have been many devastating events in the United States and worldwide that caused economic destruction. Three significant events in particular were The Great Depression, The 1970’s Oil Crisis, and the 2008 Bank Crisis. Each had similarities and differences but all causes major economic chaos.
The Great Depression was a worldwide despair that originated with the crash in the stock market in October 29, 1929. Throughout 1929 to 1933 the economic activity decreased in drastic measures. “Indrustial production declined by 37 percent, prices by 33 percent, and real GNP by 30 percent. Unemployment rose to a peak of 25 percent and stayed above 15 percent of the rest of the 1930’s” (Temin pg. 1). For nearly ten years there were few steady economic capitals in the United States. Only with the emercement of World War II, showed any improvements in the labor force during this time.
Many scholars look at this crises as a world wide event which can be traced back to the first world war. “Even though the United States emerged from the war as the preeminent industrial ecomony, it was still part of the world economy” (Termin pg. 2). The ecomic changes the war caused had many affects on American ecomony. “ The primary factors were the changed pattern of international debts and lending, the expansion and collaspe of argiculture, and the end of mass imigration” (Termine pg. 2).
“There were numerous events involving the demand in oil between 1967 and 1979 caused problems in the Untited States but the most vital started in 1973 when Arab oil producers imposed an embargo. “In October of 1973 Middles-eastern OPEC nations stopped exports to the US and other western nations. They intended to punish the western nations that supported Israel, their foe, in the Yom Kippur War, but they also realized the strong influence that they had on the world through oil” (Admin).

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