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819430606_7073-7210 | 30 Days of Night : Return to Barrow garnered Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith 's first Eisner Award nominations in 2005 . These included : | 30 Days of Night |
819430606_7211-7350 | Nomination , Best Limited Series Nomination , Best Writer ( Steve Niles ) Nomination , Best Painter / Multimedia Artist ( Ben Templesmith ) | 30 Days of Night |
819430606_7462-7896 | A film adaptation of the original 30 Days of Night miniseries was produced by Columbia Pictures and Ghost House Pictures . The screenplay went through several versions and writers , among them Steve Niles and Stuart Beattie . The film was directed by David Slade and stars Hollywood actors Josh Hartnett and Melissa George . It was released on October 19 , 2007 , and was filmed at Henderson Valley Studios in Auckland , New Zealand . | 30 Days of Night |
819430606_7897-8046 | A sequel to the film was released in October 2010 . 30 Days of Night : Dark Days was directed by Ben Ketai and stars Kiele Sanchez as Stella Oleson . | 30 Days of Night |
819430606_8063-8205 | An ongoing series of 30 Days of Night novels is being published by IDW Publishing and Pocket Books . They include a novelization of the film . | 30 Days of Night |
819430606_8206-8765 | 30 Days of Night ( film novelization ) by Tim Lebbon ISBN 978 - 1 - 4165 - 4497 - 5 30 Days of Night : Rumors of the Undead by Steve Niles and Jeff Mariotte ISBN 0 - 7434 - 9651 - 5 30 Days of Night : Immortal Remains by Steve Niles and Jeff Mariotte ISBN 978 - 0 - 7434 - 9652 - 0 30 Days of Night : Eternal Damnation by Steve Niles and Jeff Mariotte ISBN 978 - 0 - 7434 - 9653 - 7 30 Days of Night : Light of Day by Jeff Mariotte and Steve Niles ISBN 978 - 1 - 4391 - 2227 - 3 30 Days of Night : Fear of the Dark by Tim Lebbon ISBN 978 - 1 - 4391 - 2228 - 0 | 30 Days of Night |
846499272_646-1120 | The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place mostly during the 1930s , beginning in the United States . The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations ; in most countries it started in 1929 and lasted until the late - 1930s . It was the longest , deepest , and most widespread depression of the 20th century . In the 21st century , the Great Depression is commonly used as an example of how far the world 's economy can decline . | Great Depression |
846499272_1121-1713 | The Great Depression started in the United States after a major fall in stock prices that began around September 4 , 1929 , and became worldwide news with the stock market crash of October 29 , 1929 ( known as Black Tuesday ) . Between 1929 and 1932 , worldwide gross domestic product ( GDP ) fell by an estimated 15 % . By comparison , worldwide GDP fell by less than 1 % from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession . Some economies started to recover by the mid-1930s . However , in many countries , the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until the beginning of World War II . | Great Depression |
846499272_1714-1990 | The Great Depression had devastating effects in countries both rich and poor . Personal income , tax revenue , profits and prices dropped , while international trade plunged by more than 50 % . Unemployment in the U.S. rose to 25 % and in some countries rose as high as 33 % . | Great Depression |
846499272_1991-2368 | Cities around the world were hit hard , especially those dependent on heavy industry . Construction was virtually halted in many countries . Farming communities and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by about 60 % . Facing plummeting demand with few alternative sources of jobs , areas dependent on primary sector industries such as mining and logging suffered the most . | Great Depression |
846499272_3576-3884 | Economic historians usually attribute the start of the Great Depression to the sudden devastating collapse of U.S. stock market prices on October 29 , 1929 , known as Black Tuesday . However , some dispute this conclusion and see the stock crash as a symptom , rather than a cause , of the Great Depression . | Great Depression |
846499272_3885-4295 | Even after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 optimism persisted for some time . John D. Rockefeller said `` These are days when many are discouraged . In the 93 years of my life , depressions have come and gone . Prosperity has always returned and will again . '' The stock market turned upward in early 1930 , returning to early 1929 levels by April . This was still almost 30 % below the peak of September 1929 . | Great Depression |
846499272_4296-4691 | Together , government and business spent more in the first half of 1930 than in the corresponding period of the previous year . On the other hand , consumers , many of whom had suffered severe losses in the stock market the previous year , cut back their expenditures by 10 % . In addition , beginning in the mid-1930s , a severe drought ravaged the agricultural heartland of the U.S. Unemployed | Great Depression |
846499272_4792-5409 | By mid-1930 , interest rates had dropped to low levels , but expected deflation and the continuing reluctance of people to borrow meant that consumer spending and investment were depressed . By May 1930 , automobile sales had declined to below the levels of 1928 . Prices in general began to decline , although wages held steady in 1930 . Then a deflationary spiral started in 1931 . Farmers faced a worse outlook ; declining crop prices and a Great Plains drought crippled their economic outlook . At its peak , the Great Depression saw nearly 10 % of all Great Plains farms change hands despite federal assistance . | Great Depression |
846499272_5410-5938 | The decline in the U.S. economy was the factor that pulled down most other countries at first ; then , internal weaknesses or strengths in each country made conditions worse or better . Frantic attempts to shore up the economies of individual nations through protectionist policies , such as the 1930 U.S. Smoot -- Hawley Tariff Act and retaliatory tariffs in other countries , exacerbated the collapse in global trade . By 1933 , the economic decline had pushed world trade to one - third of its level just four years earlier . | Great Depression |
846499272_6000-6248 | United States Great Britain France Germany Industrial production − 46 % − 23 % − 24 % − 41 % Wholesale prices − 32 % − 33 % − 34 % − 29 % Foreign trade − 70 % − 60 % − 54 % − 61 % Unemployment + 607 % + 129 % + 214 % + 232 % | Great Depression |
846499272_6587-7479 | The two classical competing theories of the Great Depression are the Keynesian ( demand - driven ) and the monetarist explanation . There are also various heterodox theories that downplay or reject the explanations of the Keynesians and monetarists . The consensus among demand - driven theories is that a large - scale loss of confidence led to a sudden reduction in consumption and investment spending . Once panic and deflation set in , many people believed they could avoid further losses by keeping clear of the markets . Holding money became profitable as prices dropped lower and a given amount of money bought ever more goods , exacerbating the drop in demand . Monetarists believe that the Great Depression started as an ordinary recession , but the shrinking of the money supply greatly exacerbated the economic situation , causing a recession to descend into the Great Depression . | Great Depression |
846499272_7480-8092 | Economists and economic historians are almost evenly split as to whether the traditional monetary explanation that monetary forces were the primary cause of the Great Depression is right , or the traditional Keynesian explanation that a fall in autonomous spending , particularly investment , is the primary explanation for the onset of the Great Depression . Today the controversy is of lesser importance since there is mainstream support for the debt deflation theory and the expectations hypothesis that building on the monetary explanation of Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz add non-monetary explanations . | Great Depression |
846499272_8093-8319 | There is consensus that the Federal Reserve System should have cut short the process of monetary deflation and banking collapse . If they had done this , the economic downturn would have been far less severe and much shorter . | Great Depression |
846499272_8354-8712 | British economist John Maynard Keynes argued in The General Theory of Employment , Interest and Money that lower aggregate expenditures in the economy contributed to a massive decline in income and to employment that was well below the average . In such a situation , the economy reached equilibrium at low levels of economic activity and high unemployment . | Great Depression |
846499272_8713-9121 | Keynes ' basic idea was simple : to keep people fully employed , governments have to run deficits when the economy is slowing , as the private sector would not invest enough to keep production at the normal level and bring the economy out of recession . Keynesian economists called on governments during times of economic crisis to pick up the slack by increasing government spending and / or cutting taxes . | Great Depression |
846499272_9122-9491 | As the Depression wore on , Franklin D. Roosevelt tried public works , farm subsidies , and other devices to restart the U.S. economy , but never completely gave up trying to balance the budget . According to the Keynesians , this improved the economy , but Roosevelt never spent enough to bring the economy out of recession until the start of World War II . Monetarist | Great Depression |
846499272_9808-10602 | Monetarists follow the explanation given by Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz . They argue that the Great Depression was caused by the banking crisis that caused one - third of all banks to vanish , a reduction of bank shareholder wealth and more importantly monetary contraction by 35 % . This caused a price drop by 33 % ( deflation ) . By not lowering interest rates , by not increasing the monetary base and by not injecting liquidity into the banking system to prevent it from crumbling the Federal Reserve passively watched the transformation of a normal recession into the Great Depression . Friedman argued that the downward turn in the economy , starting with the stock market crash , would merely have been an ordinary recession if the Federal Reserve had taken aggressive action . | Great Depression |
846499272_10603-11208 | The Federal Reserve allowed some large public bank failures -- particularly that of the New York Bank of United States -- which produced panic and widespread runs on local banks , and the Federal Reserve sat idly by while banks collapsed . He claimed that , if the Fed had provided emergency lending to these key banks , or simply bought government bonds on the open market to provide liquidity and increase the quantity of money after the key banks fell , all the rest of the banks would not have fallen after the large ones did , and the money supply would not have fallen as far and as fast as it did . | Great Depression |
846499272_11209-11465 | With significantly less money to go around , businesses could not get new loans and could not even get their old loans renewed , forcing many to stop investing . This interpretation blames the Federal Reserve for inaction , especially the New York Branch . | Great Depression |
846499272_11466-12579 | One reason why the Federal Reserve did not act to limit the decline of the money supply was the gold standard . At that time , the amount of credit the Federal Reserve could issue was limited by the Federal Reserve Act , which required 40 % gold backing of Federal Reserve Notes issued . By the late 1920s , the Federal Reserve had almost hit the limit of allowable credit that could be backed by the gold in its possession . This credit was in the form of Federal Reserve demand notes . A `` promise of gold '' is not as good as `` gold in the hand '' , particularly when they only had enough gold to cover 40 % of the Federal Reserve Notes outstanding . During the bank panics a portion of those demand notes were redeemed for Federal Reserve gold . Since the Federal Reserve had hit its limit on allowable credit , any reduction in gold in its vaults had to be accompanied by a greater reduction in credit . On April 5 , 1933 , President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102 making the private ownership of gold certificates , coins and bullion illegal , reducing the pressure on Federal Reserve gold . Common | Great Depression |
846499272_12589-14697 | From the point of view of today 's mainstream schools of economic thought , government should strive to keep the interconnected macroeconomic aggregates money supply and / or aggregate demand on a stable growth path . When threatened by the forecast of a depression central banks should pour liquidity into the banking system and the government should cut taxes and accelerate spending in order to keep the nominal money stock and total nominal demand from collapsing . At the beginning of the Great Depression most economists believed in Say 's law and the self - equilibrating powers of the market and failed to explain the severity of the Depression . Outright leave - it - alone liquidationism was a position mainly held by the Austrian School . The liquidationist position was that a depression is good medicine . The idea was the benefit of a depression was to liquidate failed investments and businesses that have been made obsolete by technological development in order to release factors of production ( capital and labor ) from unproductive uses so that these could be redeployed in other sectors of the technologically dynamic economy . They argued that even if self - adjustment of the economy took mass bankruptcies , then so be it . An increasingly common view among economic historians is that the adherence of some Federal Reserve policymakers to the liquidationist thesis led to disastrous consequences . Regarding the policies of President Hoover , economists like Barry Eichengreen and J. Bradford DeLong point out that President Hoover tried to keep the federal budget balanced until 1932 , when he lost confidence in his Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon and replaced him . Despite liquidationist expectations , a large proportion of the capital stock was not redeployed but vanished during the first years of the Great Depression . According to a study by Olivier Blanchard and Lawrence Summers , the recession caused a drop of net capital accumulation to pre-1924 levels by 1933 . Milton Friedman called the leave - it - alone liquidationism `` dangerous nonsense '' . He wrote : | Great Depression |
846499272_14698-15214 | `` I think the Austrian business - cycle theory has done the world a great deal of harm . If you go back to the 1930s , which is a key point , here you had the Austrians sitting in London , Hayek and Lionel Robbins , and saying you just have to let the bottom drop out of the world . You 've just got to let it cure itself . You ca n't do anything about it . You will only make it worse. ... I think by encouraging that kind of do - nothing policy both in Britain and in the United States , they did harm . '' Modern | Great Depression |
846499272_15241-15770 | The monetary explanation has two weaknesses . First it is not able to explain why the demand for money was falling more rapidly than the supply during the initial downturn in 1930 -- 31 . Second it is not able to explain why in March 1933 a recovery took place although short term interest rates remained close to zero and the Money supply was still falling . These questions are addressed by modern explanations that build on the monetary explanation of Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz but add non-monetary explanations . Debt | Great Depression |
846499272_15860-16184 | Irving Fisher argued that the predominant factor leading to the Great Depression was a vicious circle of deflation and growing over-indebtedness . He outlined nine factors interacting with one another under conditions of debt and deflation to create the mechanics of boom to bust . The chain of events proceeded as follows : | Great Depression |
846499272_16185-16599 | Debt liquidation and distress selling Contraction of the money supply as bank loans are paid off A fall in the level of asset prices A still greater fall in the net worth of businesses , precipitating bankruptcies A fall in profits A reduction in output , in trade and in employment Pessimism and loss of confidence Hoarding of money A fall in nominal interest rates and a rise in deflation adjusted interest rates | Great Depression |
846499272_16600-17195 | During the Crash of 1929 preceding the Great Depression , margin requirements were only 10 % . Brokerage firms , in other words , would lend $9 for every $1 an investor had deposited . When the market fell , brokers called in these loans , which could not be paid back . Banks began to fail as debtors defaulted on debt and depositors attempted to withdraw their deposits en masse , triggering multiple bank runs . Government guarantees and Federal Reserve banking regulations to prevent such panics were ineffective or not used . Bank failures led to the loss of billions of dollars in assets . | Great Depression |
846499272_17196-18119 | Outstanding debts became heavier , because prices and incomes fell by 20 -- 50 % but the debts remained at the same dollar amount . After the panic of 1929 , and during the first 10 months of 1930 , 744 U.S. banks failed . ( In all , 9,000 banks failed during the 1930s ) . By April 1933 , around $7 billion in deposits had been frozen in failed banks or those left unlicensed after the March Bank Holiday . Bank failures snowballed as desperate bankers called in loans which the borrowers did not have time or money to repay . With future profits looking poor , capital investment and construction slowed or completely ceased . In the face of bad loans and worsening future prospects , the surviving banks became even more conservative in their lending . Banks built up their capital reserves and made fewer loans , which intensified deflationary pressures . A vicious cycle developed and the downward spiral accelerated . | Great Depression |
846499272_18120-18583 | The liquidation of debt could not keep up with the fall of prices which it caused . The mass effect of the stampede to liquidate increased the value of each dollar owed , relative to the value of declining asset holdings . The very effort of individuals to lessen their burden of debt effectively increased it . Paradoxically , the more the debtors paid , the more they owed . This self - aggravating process turned a 1930 recession into a 1933 great depression . | Great Depression |
846499272_18584-18878 | Fisher 's debt - deflation theory initially lacked mainstream influence because of the counter-argument that debt - deflation represented no more than a redistribution from one group ( debtors ) to another ( creditors ) . Pure re-distributions should have no significant macroeconomic effects . | Great Depression |
846499272_18879-20022 | Building on both the monetary hypothesis of Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz as well as the debt deflation hypothesis of Irving Fisher , Ben Bernanke developed an alternative way in which the financial crisis affected output . He builds on Fisher 's argument that dramatic declines in the price level and nominal incomes lead to increasing real debt burdens which in turn leads to debtor insolvency and consequently leads to lowered aggregate demand , a further decline in the price level then results in a debt deflationary spiral . According to Bernanke , a small decline in the price level simply reallocates wealth from debtors to creditors without doing damage to the economy . But when the deflation is severe falling asset prices along with debtor bankruptcies lead to a decline in the nominal value of assets on bank balance sheets . Banks will react by tightening their credit conditions , that in turn leads to a credit crunch which does serious harm to the economy . A credit crunch lowers investment and consumption and results in declining aggregate demand which additionally contributes to the deflationary spiral . Expectations | Great Depression |
846499272_20034-21954 | Since economic mainstream turned to the new neoclassical synthesis , expectations are a central element of macroeconomic models . According to Peter Temin , Barry Wigmore , Gauti B. Eggertsson and Christina Romer , the key to recovery and to ending the Great Depression was brought about by a successful management of public expectations . The thesis is based on the observation that after years of deflation and a very severe recession important economic indicators turned positive in March 1933 when Franklin D. Roosevelt took office . Consumer prices turned from deflation to a mild inflation , industrial production bottomed out in March 1933 , and investment doubled in 1933 with a turnaround in March 1933 . There were no monetary forces to explain that turn around . Money supply was still falling and short term interest rates remained close to zero . Before March 1933 people expected further deflation and a recession so that even interest rates at zero did not stimulate investment . But when Roosevelt announced major regime changes people began to expect inflation and an economic expansion . With these positive expectations , interest rates at zero began to stimulate investment just as they were expected to do . Roosevelt 's fiscal and monetary policy regime change helped to make his policy objectives credible . The expectation of higher future income and higher future inflation stimulated demand and investments . The analysis suggests that the elimination of the policy dogmas of the gold standard , a balanced budget in times of crises and small government led endogenously to a large shift in expectation that accounts for about 70 -- 80 percent of the recovery of output and prices from 1933 to 1937 . If the regime change had not happened and the Hoover policy had continued , the economy would have continued its free fall in 1933 , and output would have been 30 % lower in 1937 than in 1933 . | Great Depression |
846499272_21955-22235 | The recession of 1937 -- 38 , which slowed down economic recovery from the Great Depression , is explained by fears of the population that the moderate tightening of the monetary and fiscal policy in 1937 would be first steps to a restoration of the pre-March 1933 policy regime . | Great Depression |
846499272_22271-22791 | Two prominent theorists in the Austrian School on the Great Depression include Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek and American economist Murray Rothbard , who wrote America 's Great Depression ( 1963 ) . In their view , much like the monetarists , the Federal Reserve ( of which was created in 1913 ) shoulders much of the blame ; however unlike the Monetarists , they argue that the key cause of the Depression was the expansion of the money supply in the 1920s , of which led to an unsustainable credit - driven boom . | Great Depression |
846499272_22792-23218 | In the Austrian view it was this inflation of the money supply that led to an unsustainable boom in both asset prices ( stocks and bonds ) and capital goods . Therefore , by the time the Federal Reserve tightened in 1928 it was far too late to prevent an economic contraction . In February 1929 Hayek published a paper predicting the Federal Reserve 's actions would lead to a crisis starting in the stock and credit markets . | Great Depression |
846499272_23219-23762 | According to Rothbard , the government support for failed enterprises and efforts to keep wages above their market values actually prolonged the Depression . Unlike Rothbard , after 1970 Hayek believed that the Federal Reserve had further contributed to the problems of the Depression by permitting the money supply to shrink during the earliest years of the Depression . However , during the Depression ( in 1932 and in 1934 ) Hayek had criticized both the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England for not taking a more contractionary stance . | Great Depression |
846499272_23763-24482 | Hans Sennholz , another prominent Austrian economist , argued that most boom and busts that plagued the American economy , such as those in 1819 -- 20 , 1839 -- 43 , 1857 -- 60 , 1873 -- 78 , 1893 -- 97 , and 1920 -- 21 , were generated by government creating a boom through easy money and credit , which was soon followed by the inevitable bust . The spectacular crash of 1929 followed five years of reckless credit expansion by the Federal Reserve System under the Coolidge Administration . The passing of the Sixteenth Amendment , the passage of The Federal Reserve Act , rising government deficits , the passage of the Hawley - Smoot Tariff Act , and the Revenue Act of 1932 , exacerbated and prolonged the crisis . | Great Depression |
846499272_24483-25302 | Ludwig von Mises wrote in the 1930s : `` Credit expansion can not increase the supply of real goods . It merely brings about a rearrangement . It diverts capital investment away from the course prescribed by the state of economic wealth and market conditions . It causes production to pursue paths which it would not follow unless the economy were to acquire an increase in material goods . As a result , the upswing lacks a solid base . It is not a real prosperity . It is illusory prosperity . It did not develop from an increase in economic wealth , i.e. the accumulation of savings made available for productive investment . Rather , it arose because the credit expansion created the illusion of such an increase . Sooner or later , it must become apparent that this economic situation is built on sand . '' Marxist | Great Depression |
846499272_25303-26150 | Karl Marx saw recession and depression as unavoidable under free - market capitalism as there are no restrictions on accumulations of capital other than the market itself . In the Marxist view , capitalism tends to create unbalanced accumulations of wealth , leading to over-accumulations of capital which inevitably lead to a crisis . This especially sharp bust is a regular feature of the boom and bust pattern of what Marxists term `` chaotic '' capitalist development . It is a tenet of many Marxist groupings that such crises are inevitable and will be increasingly severe until the contradictions inherent in the mismatch between the mode of production and the development of productive forces reach the final point of failure . At which point , the crisis period encourages intensified class conflict and forces societal change . Inequality | Great Depression |
846499272_26262-26674 | Two economists of the 1920s , Waddill Catchings and William Trufant Foster , popularized a theory that influenced many policy makers , including Herbert Hoover , Henry A. Wallace , Paul Douglas , and Marriner Eccles . It held the economy produced more than it consumed , because the consumers did not have enough income . Thus the unequal distribution of wealth throughout the 1920s caused the Great Depression . | Great Depression |
846499272_26675-27394 | According to this view , the root cause of the Great Depression was a global over-investment in heavy industry capacity compared to wages and earnings from independent businesses , such as farms . The proposed solution was for the government to pump money into the consumers ' pockets . That is , it must redistribute purchasing power , maintaining the industrial base , and re-inflating prices and wages to force as much of the inflationary increase in purchasing power into consumer spending . The economy was overbuilt , and new factories were not needed . Foster and Catchings recommended federal and state governments to start large construction projects , a program followed by Hoover and Roosevelt . Productivity | Great Depression |
846499272_27401-27789 | It can not be emphasized too strongly that the ( productivity , output and employment ) trends we are describing are long - time trends and were thoroughly evident prior to 1929 . These trends are in nowise the result of the present depression , nor are they the result of the World War . On the contrary , the present depression is a collapse resulting from these long - term trends . -- | Great Depression |
846499272_27806-28077 | The first three decades of the 20th century saw economic output surge with electrification , mass production and motorized farm machinery , and because of the rapid growth in productivity there was a lot of excess production capacity and the work week was being reduced . | Great Depression |
846499272_28078-28308 | The dramatic rise in productivity of major industries in the U.S. and the effects of productivity on output , wages and the work week are discussed by Spurgeon Bell in his book Productivity , Wages , and National Income ( 1940 ) . | Great Depression |
846499272_28340-28592 | This section needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . ( May 2016 ) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message ) | Great Depression |
846499272_28593-29185 | The gold standard was the primary transmission mechanism of the Great Depression . Even countries that did not face bank failures and a monetary contraction first hand were forced to join the deflationary policy since higher interest rates in countries that performed a deflationary policy led to a gold outflow in countries with lower interest rates . Under the gold standard 's price -- specie flow mechanism , countries that lost gold but nevertheless wanted to maintain the gold standard had to permit their money supply to decrease and the domestic price level to decline ( deflation ) . | Great Depression |
846499272_29186-29310 | There is also consensus that protectionist policies such as the Smoot -- Hawley Tariff Act helped to worsen the depression . | Great Depression |
846499272_29369-29621 | Some economic studies have indicated that just as the downturn was spread worldwide by the rigidities of the Gold Standard , it was suspending gold convertibility ( or devaluing the currency in gold terms ) that did the most to make recovery possible . | Great Depression |
846499272_29622-29937 | Every major currency left the gold standard during the Great Depression . Great Britain was the first to do so . Facing speculative attacks on the pound and depleting gold reserves , in September 1931 the Bank of England ceased exchanging pound notes for gold and the pound was floated on foreign exchange markets . | Great Depression |
846499272_29938-30286 | Great Britain , Japan , and the Scandinavian countries left the gold standard in 1931 . Other countries , such as Italy and the U.S. , remained on the gold standard into 1932 or 1933 , while a few countries in the so - called `` gold bloc '' , led by France and including Poland , Belgium and Switzerland , stayed on the standard until 1935 -- 36 . | Great Depression |
846499272_30287-31039 | According to later analysis , the earliness with which a country left the gold standard reliably predicted its economic recovery . For example , Great Britain and Scandinavia , which left the gold standard in 1931 , recovered much earlier than France and Belgium , which remained on gold much longer . Countries such as China , which had a silver standard , almost avoided the depression entirely . The connection between leaving the gold standard as a strong predictor of that country 's severity of its depression and the length of time of its recovery has been shown to be consistent for dozens of countries , including developing countries . This partly explains why the experience and length of the depression differed between national economies . | Great Depression |
846499272_31073-32301 | Many economists have argued that the sharp decline in international trade after 1930 helped to worsen the depression , especially for countries significantly dependent on foreign trade . In a 1995 survey of American economic historians , two - thirds agreed that the Smoot -- Hawley Tariff Act at least worsened the Great Depression . Most historians and economists partly blame the American Smoot -- Hawley Tariff Act ( enacted June 17 , 1930 ) for worsening the depression by seriously reducing international trade and causing retaliatory tariffs in other countries . While foreign trade was a small part of overall economic activity in the U.S. and was concentrated in a few businesses like farming , it was a much larger factor in many other countries . The average ad valorem rate of duties on dutiable imports for 1921 -- 25 was 25.9 % but under the new tariff it jumped to 50 % during 1931 -- 35 . In dollar terms , American exports declined over the next four ( 4 ) years from about $5.2 billion in 1929 to $1.7 billion in 1933 ; so , not only did the physical volume of exports fall , but also the prices fell by about 1 / 3 as written . Hardest hit were farm commodities such as wheat , cotton , tobacco , and lumber . | Great Depression |
846499272_32302-32845 | Governments around the world took various steps into spending less money on foreign goods such as : `` imposing tariffs , import quotas , and exchange controls '' . These restrictions formed a lot of tension between trade nations , causing a major deduction during the depression . Not all countries enforced the same measures of protectionism . Some countries raised tariffs drastically and enforced severe restrictions on foreign exchange transactions , while other countries condensed `` trade and exchange restrictions only marginally '' : | Great Depression |
846499272_32846-33901 | `` Countries that remained on the gold standard , keeping currencies fixed , were more likely to restrict foreign trade . '' These countries `` resorted to protectionist policies to strengthen the balance of payments and limit gold losses . '' They hoped that these restrictions and depletions would hold the economic decline . Countries that abandoned the gold standard , allowed their currencies to depreciate which caused their balance of payments to strengthen . It also freed up monetary policy so that central banks could lower interest rates and act as lenders of last resort . They possessed the best policy instruments to fight the Depression and did not need protectionism . `` The length and depth of a country 's economic downturn and the timing and vigor of its recovery is related to how long it remained on the gold standard . Countries abandoning the gold standard relatively early experienced relatively mild recessions and early recoveries . In contrast , countries remaining on the gold standard experienced prolonged slumps . '' Effect | Great Depression |
846499272_33951-34333 | The consensus view among economists and economic historians is that the passage of the Smoot - Hawley Tariff exacerbated the Great Depression , although there is disagreement as to how much . In the popular view , the Smoot - Hawley Tariff was a leading cause of the depression . However , many economists hold the opinion that the tariff act did not greatly worsen the depression . | Great Depression |
846499272_34383-34528 | It has been suggested that this section be split out into another article titled European banking crisis of 1931 . ( Discuss ) ( September 2017 ) | Great Depression |
846499272_34529-36087 | The financial crisis escalated out of control in mid-1931 , starting with the collapse of the Credit Anstalt in Vienna in May . This put heavy pressure on Germany , which was already in political turmoil . With the rise in violence of Nazi and communist movements , as well as investor nervousness at harsh government financial policies . Investors withdrew their short - term money from Germany , as confidence spiraled downward . The Reichsbank lost 150 million marks in the first week of June , 540 million in the second , and 150 million in two days , June 19 -- 20 . Collapse was at hand . U.S. President Herbert Hoover called for a moratorium on Payment of war reparations . This angered Paris , which depended on a steady flow of German payments , but it slowed the crisis down and the moratorium , was agreed to in July 1931 . International conference in London later in July produced no agreements but on August 19 a standstill agreement froze Germany 's foreign liabilities for six months . Germany received emergency funding from private banks in New York as well as the Bank of International Settlements and the Bank of England . The funding only slowed the process ; it 's nothing . Industrial failures began in Germany , a major bank closed in July and a two - day holiday for all German banks was declared . Business failures more frequent in July , and spread to Romania and Hungary . The crisis continued to get worse in Germany , bringing political upheaval that finally led to the coming to power of Hitler 's Nazi regime in January 1933 . | Great Depression |
846499272_36088-37451 | The world financial crisis now began to overwhelm Britain ; investors across the world started withdrawing their gold from London at the rate of £ 21⁄2 millions a day . Credits of £ 25 millions each from the Bank of France and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and an issue of £ 15 millions fiduciary note slowed , but did not reverse the British crisis . The financial crisis now caused a major political crisis in Britain in August 1931 . With deficits mounting , the bankers demanded a balanced budget ; the divided cabinet of Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald 's Labour government agreed ; it proposed to raise taxes , cut spending and most controversially , to cut unemployment benefits 20 % . The attack on welfare was totally unacceptable to the Labour movement . MacDonald wanted to resign , but King George V insisted he remain and form an all - party coalition `` National government . '' The Conservative and Liberals parties signed on , along with a small cadre of Labour , but the vast majority of Labour leaders denounced MacDonald as a traitor for leading the new government . Britain went off the gold standard , and suffered relatively less than other major countries in the Great Depression . In the 1931 British election the Labour Party was virtually destroyed , leaving MacDonald as Prime Minister for a largely Conservative coalition . | Great Depression |
846499272_37733-38022 | In most countries of the world , recovery from the Great Depression began in 1933 . In the U.S. , recovery began in early 1933 , but the U.S. did not return to 1929 GNP for over a decade and still had an unemployment rate of about 15 % in 1940 , albeit down from the high of 25 % in 1933 . | Great Depression |
846499272_38023-38985 | There is no consensus among economists regarding the motive force for the U.S. economic expansion that continued through most of the Roosevelt years ( and the 1937 recession that interrupted it ) . The common view among most economists is that Roosevelt 's New Deal policies either caused or accelerated the recovery , although his policies were never aggressive enough to bring the economy completely out of recession . Some economists have also called attention to the positive effects from expectations of reflation and rising nominal interest rates that Roosevelt 's words and actions portended . It was the rollback of those same reflationary policies that led to the interruption of a recession beginning in late 1937 . One contributing policy that reversed reflation was the Banking Act of 1935 , which effectively raised reserve requirements , causing a monetary contraction that helped to thwart the recovery . GDP returned to its upward trend in 1938 . | Great Depression |
846499272_38986-39983 | According to Christina Romer , the money supply growth caused by huge international gold inflows was a crucial source of the recovery of the United States economy , and that the economy showed little sign of self - correction . The gold inflows were partly due to devaluation of the U.S. dollar and partly due to deterioration of the political situation in Europe . In their book , A Monetary History of the United States , Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz also attributed the recovery to monetary factors , and contended that it was much slowed by poor management of money by the Federal Reserve System . Former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke agreed that monetary factors played important roles both in the worldwide economic decline and eventual recovery . Bernanke also saw a strong role for institutional factors , particularly the rebuilding and restructuring of the financial system , and pointed out that the Depression should be examined in an international perspective . | Great Depression |
846499272_40022-40525 | Women 's primary role were as housewives ; without a steady flow of family income , their work became much harder in dealing with food and clothing and medical care . Birthrates fell everywhere , as children were postponed until families could financially support them . The average birthrate for 14 major countries fell 12 % from 19.3 births per thousand population in 1930 , to 17.0 in 1935 . In Canada , half of Roman Catholic women defied Church teachings and used contraception to postpone births . | Great Depression |
846499272_40526-40948 | Among the few women in the labor force , layoffs were less common in the white - collar jobs and they were typically found in light manufacturing work . However , there was a widespread demand to limit families to one paid job , so that wives might lose employment if their husband was employed . Across Britain , there was a tendency for married women to join the labor force , competing for part - time jobs especially . | Great Depression |
846499272_40949-41544 | In rural and small - town areas , women expanded their operation of vegetable gardens to include as much food production as possible . In the United States , agricultural organizations sponsored programs to teach housewives how to optimize their gardens and to raise poultry for meat and eggs . In American cities , African American women quiltmakers enlarged their activities , promoted collaboration , and trained neophytes . Quilts were created for practical use from various inexpensive materials and increased social interaction for women and promoted camaraderie and personal fulfillment . | Great Depression |
846499272_41545-42422 | Oral history provides evidence for how housewives in a modern industrial city handled shortages of money and resources . Often they updated strategies their mothers used when they were growing up in poor families . Cheap foods were used , such as soups , beans and noodles . They purchased the cheapest cuts of meat -- sometimes even horse meat -- and recycled the Sunday roast into sandwiches and soups . They sewed and patched clothing , traded with their neighbors for outgrown items , and made do with colder homes . New furniture and appliances were postponed until better days . Many women also worked outside the home , or took boarders , did laundry for trade or cash , and did sewing for neighbors in exchange for something they could offer . Extended families used mutual aid -- extra food , spare rooms , repair - work , cash loans -- to help cousins and in - laws . | Great Depression |
846499272_42423-42677 | In Japan , official government policy was deflationary and the opposite of Keynesian spending . Consequently , the government launched a nationwide campaign to induce households to reduce their consumption , focusing attention on spending by housewives . | Great Depression |
846499272_42678-43275 | In Germany , the government tried to reshape private household consumption under the Four - Year Plan of 1936 to achieve German economic self - sufficiency . The Nazi women 's organizations , other propaganda agencies and the authorities all attempted to shape such consumption as economic self - sufficiency was needed to prepare for and to sustain the coming war . The organizations , propaganda agencies and authorities employed slogans that called up traditional values of thrift and healthy living . However , these efforts were only partly successful in changing the behavior of housewives . | Great Depression |
846499272_43427-43782 | The common view among economic historians is that the Great Depression ended with the advent of World War II . Many economists believe that government spending on the war caused or at least accelerated recovery from the Great Depression , though some consider that it did not play a very large role in the recovery . It did help in reducing unemployment . | Great Depression |
846499272_43783-44040 | The rearmament policies leading up to World War II helped stimulate the economies of Europe in 1937 -- 39 . By 1937 , unemployment in Britain had fallen to 1.5 million . The mobilization of manpower following the outbreak of war in 1939 ended unemployment . | Great Depression |
846499272_44041-44533 | When the United States entered into the war in 1941 , it finally eliminated the last effects from the Great Depression and brought the U.S. unemployment rate down below 10 % . In the U.S. , massive war spending doubled economic growth rates , either masking the effects of the Depression or essentially ending the Depression . Businessmen ignored the mounting national debt and heavy new taxes , redoubling their efforts for greater output to take advantage of generous government contracts . | Great Depression |
846499272_44542-44797 | This section needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . ( May 2016 ) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message ) An | Great Depression |
846499272_44853-45223 | The majority of countries set up relief programs and most underwent some sort of political upheaval , pushing them to the right . Many of the countries in Europe and Latin America that were democracies saw them overthrown by some form of dictatorship or authoritarian rule , most famously in Germany in 1933 . The Dominion of Newfoundland gave up democracy voluntarily . | Great Depression |
846499272_45279-45668 | Australia 's dependence on agricultural and industrial exports meant it was one of the hardest - hit developed countries . Falling export demand and commodity prices placed massive downward pressures on wages . Unemployment reached a record high of 29 % in 1932 , with incidents of civil unrest becoming common . After 1932 , an increase in wool and meat prices led to a gradual recovery . | Great Depression |
846499272_45769-46255 | Harshly affected by both the global economic downturn and the Dust Bowl , Canadian industrial production had fallen to only 58 % of the 1929 level by 1932 , the second lowest level in the world after the United States , and well behind nations such as Britain , which fell to only 83 % of the 1929 level . Total national income fell to 56 % of the 1929 level , again worse than any nation apart from the United States . Unemployment reached 27 % at the depth of the Depression in 1933 . | Great Depression |
846499272_46303-46781 | The League of Nations labeled Chile the country hardest hit by the Great Depression because 80 % of government revenue came from exports of copper and nitrates , which were in low demand . Chile initially felt the impact of the Great Depression in 1930 , when GDP dropped 14 % , mining income declined 27 % , and export earnings fell 28 % . By 1932 , GDP had shrunk to less than half of what it had been in 1929 , exacting a terrible toll in unemployment and business failures . | Great Depression |
846499272_46782-47266 | Influenced profoundly by the Great Depression , many national leaders promoted the development of local industry in an effort to insulate the economy from future external shocks . After six years of government austerity measures , which succeeded in reestablishing Chile 's creditworthiness , Chileans elected to office during the 1938 -- 58 period a succession of center and left - of - center governments interested in promoting economic growth by means of government intervention . | Great Depression |
846499272_47267-47718 | Prompted in part by the devastating 1939 Chillán earthquake , the Popular Front government of Pedro Aguirre Cerda created the Production Development Corporation ( Corporación de Fomento de la Producción , CORFO ) to encourage with subsidies and direct investments an ambitious program of import substitution industrialization . Consequently , as in other Latin American countries , protectionism became an entrenched aspect of the Chilean economy . | Great Depression |
846499272_47755-48756 | China was largely unaffected by the Depression , mainly by having stuck to the Silver standard . However , the U.S. silver purchase act of 1934 created an intolerable demand on China 's silver coins , and so in the end the silver standard was officially abandoned in 1935 in favor of the four Chinese national banks ' `` legal note '' issues . China and the British colony of Hong Kong , which followed suit in this regard in September 1935 , would be the last to abandon the silver standard . In addition , the Nationalist Government also acted energetically to modernize the legal and penal systems , stabilize prices , amortize debts , reform the banking and currency systems , build railroads and highways , improve public health facilities , legislate against traffic in narcotics and augment industrial and agricultural production . On November 3 , 1935 , the government instituted the fiat currency ( fapi ) reform , immediately stabilizing prices and also raising revenues for the government . | Great Depression |
846499272_48806-48992 | The crisis affected France a bit later than other countries , hitting around 1931 . While the 1920s grew at the very strong rate of 4.43 % per year , the 1930s rate fell to only 0.63 % . | Great Depression |
846499272_48993-49155 | The depression was relatively mild : unemployment peaked under 5 % , the fall in production was at most 20 % below the 1929 output ; there was no banking crisis . | Great Depression |
846499272_49156-49504 | However , the depression had drastic effects on the local economy , and partly explains the February 6 , 1934 riots and even more the formation of the Popular Front , led by SFIO socialist leader Léon Blum , which won the elections in 1936 . Ultra-nationalist groups also saw increased popularity , although democracy prevailed into World War II . | Great Depression |
846499272_49505-49629 | France 's relatively high degree of self - sufficiency meant the damage was considerably less than in nations like Germany . | Great Depression |
846499272_49699-51295 | The Great Depression hit Germany hard . The impact of the Wall Street Crash forced American banks to end the new loans that had been funding the repayments under the Dawes Plan and the Young Plan . The financial crisis escalated out of control and mid-1931 , starting with the collapse of the Credit Anstalt in Vienna in May . This put heavy pressure on Germany , which was already in political turmoil with the rise in violence of Nazi and communist movements , as well as with investor nervousness at harsh government financial policies . Investors withdrew their short - term money from Germany , as confidence spiraled downward . The Reichsbank lost 150 million marks in the first week of June , 540 million in the second , and 150 million in two days , June 19 -- 20 . Collapse was at hand . U.S. President Herbert Hoover called for a moratorium on Payment of war reparations . This angered Paris , which depended on a steady flow of German payments , but it slowed the crisis down and the moratorium , was agreed to in July 1931 . An international conference in London later in July produced no agreements but on August 19 a standstill agreement froze Germany 's foreign liabilities for six months . Germany received emergency funding from private banks in New York as well as the Bank of International Settlements and the Bank of England . The funding only slowed the process . Industrial failures began in Germany , a major bank closed in July and a two - day holiday for all German banks was declared . Business failures became more frequent in July , and spread to Romania and Hungary . | Great Depression |
846499272_51296-52346 | In 1932 , 90 % of German reparation payments were cancelled . ( In the 1950s , Germany repaid all its missed reparations debts . ) Widespread unemployment reached 25 % as every sector was hurt . The government did not increase government spending to deal with Germany 's growing crisis , as they were afraid that a high - spending policy could lead to a return of the hyperinflation that had affected Germany in 1923 . Germany 's Weimar Republic was hit hard by the depression , as American loans to help rebuild the German economy now stopped . The unemployment rate reached nearly 30 % in 1932 , bolstering support for the Nazi ( NSDAP ) and Communist ( KPD ) parties , causing the collapse of the politically centrist Social Democratic Party . Hitler ran for the Presidency in 1932 , and while he lost to the incumbent Hindenburg in the election , it marked a point during which both Nazi Party and the Communist parties rose in the years following the crash to altogether possess a Reichstag majority following the general election in July 1932 . | Great Depression |
846499272_52347-52680 | Hitler followed an autarky economic policy , creating a network of client states and economic allies in central Europe and Latin America . By cutting wages and taking control of labor unions , plus public works spending , unemployment fell significantly by 1935 . Large - scale military spending played a major role in the recovery . | Great Depression |
846499272_52750-53770 | The reverberations of the Great Depression hit Greece in 1932 . The Bank of Greece tried to adopt deflationary policies to stave off the crises that were going on in other countries , but these largely failed . For a brief period the drachma was pegged to the U.S. dollar , but this was unsustainable given the country 's large trade deficit and the only long - term effects of this were Greece 's foreign exchange reserves being almost totally wiped out in 1932 . Remittances from abroad declined sharply and the value of the drachma began to plummet from 77 drachmas to the dollar in March 1931 to 111 drachmas to the dollar in April , 1931 . This was especially harmful to Greece as the country relied on imports from the UK , France and the Middle East for many necessities . Greece went off the gold standard in April , 1932 and declared a moratorium on all interest payments . The country also adopted protectionist policies such as import quotas , which a number of European countries did during the time period . | Great Depression |
846499272_53771-54446 | Protectionist policies coupled with a weak drachma , stifling imports , allowed Greek industry to expand during the Great Depression . In 1939 Greek Industrial output was 179 % that of 1928 . These industries were for the most part `` built on sand '' as one report of the Bank of Greece put it , as without massive protection they would not have been able to survive . Despite the global depression , Greece managed to suffer comparatively little , averaging an average growth rate of 3.5 % from 1932 to 1939 . The dictatorial regime of Ioannis Metaxas took over the Greek government in 1936 , and economic growth was strong in the years leading up to the Second World War . | Great Depression |
846499272_54455-55212 | Icelandic post-World War I prosperity came to an end with the outbreak of the Great Depression . The Depression hit Iceland hard as the value of exports plummeted . The total value of Icelandic exports fell from 74 million kronur in 1929 to 48 million in 1932 , and was not to rise again to the pre-1930 level until after 1939 . Government interference in the economy increased : `` Imports were regulated , trade with foreign currency was monopolized by state - owned banks , and loan capital was largely distributed by state - regulated funds '' . Due to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War , which cut Iceland 's exports of saltfish by half , the Depression lasted in Iceland until the outbreak of World War II ( when prices for fish exports soared ) . | Great Depression |
846499272_55328-55623 | Ireland was a largely agrarian economy , trading almost exclusively with the UK , at the time of the Great Depression . Beef and dairy products comprised the bulk of exports , and Ireland fared well relative to many other commodity producers , particularly in the early years of the depression . | Great Depression |
846499272_55671-56516 | The Great Depression hit Italy very hard . As industries came close to failure they were bought out by the banks in a largely illusionary bail - out -- the assets used to fund the purchases were largely worthless . This led to a financial crisis peaking in 1932 and major government intervention . The Industrial Reconstruction Institute ( IRI ) was formed in January 1933 and took control of the bank - owned companies , suddenly giving Italy the largest state - owned industrial sector in Europe ( excluding the USSR ) . IRI did rather well with its new responsibilities -- restructuring , modernising and rationalising as much as it could . It was a significant factor in post-1945 development . But it took the Italian economy until 1935 to recover the manufacturing levels of 1930 -- a position that was only 60 % better than that of 1913 . | Great Depression |
846499272_56523-57067 | The Great Depression did not strongly affect Japan . The Japanese economy shrank by 8 % during 1929 -- 31 . Japan 's Finance Minister Takahashi Korekiyo was the first to implement what have come to be identified as Keynesian economic policies : first , by large fiscal stimulus involving deficit spending ; and second , by devaluing the currency . Takahashi used the Bank of Japan to sterilize the deficit spending and minimize resulting inflationary pressures . Econometric studies have identified the fiscal stimulus as especially effective . | Great Depression |
846499272_57068-57544 | The devaluation of the currency had an immediate effect . Japanese textiles began to displace British textiles in export markets . The deficit spending proved to be most profound and went into the purchase of munitions for the armed forces . By 1933 , Japan was already out of the depression . By 1934 , Takahashi realized that the economy was in danger of overheating , and to avoid inflation , moved to reduce the deficit spending that went towards armaments and munitions . | Great Depression |
846499272_57545-58094 | This resulted in a strong and swift negative reaction from nationalists , especially those in the army , culminating in his assassination in the course of the February 26 Incident . This had a chilling effect on all civilian bureaucrats in the Japanese government . From 1934 , the military 's dominance of the government continued to grow . Instead of reducing deficit spending , the government introduced price controls and rationing schemes that reduced , but did not eliminate inflation , which remained a problem until the end of World War II . | Great Depression |
846499272_58095-58539 | The deficit spending had a transformative effect on Japan . Japan 's industrial production doubled during the 1930s . Further , in 1929 the list of the largest firms in Japan was dominated by light industries , especially textile companies ( many of Japan 's automakers , such as Toyota , have their roots in the textile industry ) . By 1940 light industry had been displaced by heavy industry as the largest firms inside the Japanese economy . | Great Depression |
846499272_58603-58801 | Because of high levels of U.S. investment in Latin American economies , they were severely damaged by the Depression . Within the region , Chile , Bolivia and Peru were particularly badly affected . | Great Depression |