📜 Real history · Beginner
History: After the 1929 Crash
October 1929: the stock market crashes. Banks begin to fail, and the Fed does little to stop the money supply from shrinking.
The facts
- Start: September 1929. End: March 1933.
- Thousands of banks fail; the money supply falls about one-third.
- Predict what actually happened.
Your predictions
What actually happened
Why?
The Great Depression was the worst economic collapse in U.S. history. Unemployment rose from about 3% to about 25%. Prices fell sharply — deflation — which made debts harder to repay and caused even more defaults. The stock market lost roughly 80% of its value. Most economists today believe the Fed’s failure to stop banking panics and the shrinking money supply made it far worse.