The Great Depressions Altering of Government Perspective

After the prosperous age of the Golden Twenties, the Great Depression plunged the United States into the most severe economic downturn in history. Companies went bankrupt, workers were fired in multitudes, and the nation’s money supply all but vanished. During the crisis, one quarter of the entire nation was unemployed. The New Deal caused Americans to view their government with a new perspective that has forever changed American politics. How did the Great Depression and New Deal transform American politics? The prosperity of the 1920’s came to an abrupt halt when the stock market crashed in 1929. The cause of the Great Depression was triggered by a combination of reasons. Americans had been assured in their faith of a booming economy that they bought numerous items on credit. Ultimately the amount of products bought on credit reached an astounding $7 billion(4). With easy access to credit due to the government’s low interest rates, people had bought all of the new automobiles and radios without actually having the finances to pay for them. Beyond that, billions were poured into the stock market to make quick profit, which caused problems because it inflated the stocks to where they were selling for more than they were essentially worth. As if the stock market was not unstable enough, margin buying added to the danger of the stock market collapse because people were purchasing stocks with borrowed money. When the stock market collapsed, brokers demanded but were unable