Brother can you Spare a Dime?

Causes and Impact of the Great

Depression
 1931- The New Americana
They used to tell me I was building a
dream.
And so I followed the mob
When there was earth to plow
Or guns to bear I was always there
Right on the job.
They used to tell me I was building a
dream
With peace and glory ahead.
Why should I be standing in line
Just waiting for bread?
Once I built a railroad I made it run
Made it race against time.
Once I built a railroad
Now it's done
Brother, can you spare a dime?
Once I built a tower up to the sun
Brick and rivet and lime.
Once I built a tower,
Now it's done.
Brother, can you spare a dime?
Once in khaki suits
Gee we looked swell
Full of that yankee doodle dee dum.
Half a million boots went sloggin' through
hell
And I was the kid with the drum!
Say don't you remember?
They called me Al.
It was Al all the time.
Why don't you remember?
I'm your pal.
Say buddy, can you spare a dime?
 7 out of 10 Historians agree…
Historiography of the Depression

During the Depression: Lack of business confidence, Under-

consumption, international economic forces

Friedman: Bad monetary policy, Monetary History of the United

States, (1963)

Temin: Drop in investment and consumer spending, Did

Monetary Policy Cause the Great Depression, (1976)

Bernstein: Why did it last so long? The Great Depression (1987)

No one clear explanation that satisfies all

The Reasons upon which most agree…

The wall street crash of 1929 was NOT the

cause of the Depression
• Symptomatic
• Long-standing structural economic
problems
• Crash brought them to light
 Uneven Distribution of Wealth

• Purchasing power
• Consumer demand
• Market weakness
• More than half of families
living on subsistence wages
 Poor Economic Diversification

Few industries
(construction,
cars)
Car sales plummet
late 1920s
New industries
develop too slowly
 Debt

• Crop prices are low

• Small banks default on
loans
• Some banks are
making bad decisions
regarding loans
• Banks fail when
market crashes
International Trade and Debt Structure

• European •American Government won’t

factories/manufacturing forgive or reduce debt
coming back from War •American tariff structure
• European War related debt
(remember the Versailles
Treaty?)
 The Depression Progresses

• Collapse of the banking system

• GNP plummets
• 25% unemployment
• 33% underemployment
Impact: Urban
•Rent/Mortgage
•Hoovervilles
•Soup Kitchens
•Bread Lines
Impact: Urban
• Worse for blacks
• Higher
unemployment
rates
• Already
stretched tight
• Increase in
racial violence
 Impact: Black

•Great Migration continues,

although slower
• Scottsboro, 1931
•Lynching increases (24
African Americans died by
lynching in 1933)
 Impact: Rural

•Terrible struggle,
subsistence farming
•Foreclosure
•Tenant farming
 Impact: Rural
•Dust Bowl
•Land exhausted
through
overproduction of
crops
•Drought
Hoover’s Reaction

•Caution
•Hands off: voluntary
Cooperation
•Hawley- Smoot
Tariff Act and
Agricultural
Marketing Act
•1930 Congressional
Elections
 Election of 1932
•International •Farmers Holiday
Economic Collapse Association
•Reconstruction
Finance •Bonus Army
Corporation

Wealthy NY Family
Asst. Secretary of the
Navy
Polio, 1921- struggled
to regain use of his
legs
Governor of NY1928