Do you agree with my list? What do YOU think was the biggest cause of the Great Depression? Sign up for Blinkist and get 25% off by going to www.blinkist.com/mrbeat Premium subscribers get special member pricing: up to 65% off the regular retail price
Whenever I asked my grandparents or anyone else their age what the Great Depression was like I always got the same answer. "We were so poor we didn't even notice."
@Yummy Spaghetti Noodles Naw. Important people keep those things running because they need them. With factories and shit closed down, they don't need poor people, so they just don't notice or care. And since those people are poor, those things don't go towards the poor people because they're not important. Basically, all of the important resources get hoarded up high because they don't need a labor class for the most part. And since the labor class is so poor, anything the wealthier absolutely need are dirt cheap.
@@joshuaidugboe214 insurance companies don't go bust and have to get bailed out by the government every decade(the AIG was bailed out in 2008, but the banks go under like clockwork)
@@nope929 or perhaps the content was so dry and boring with an unenthusiastic teacher that just didn't engage the student, no bad student only bad teacher
@ZurkBK Jackson was the founder of our modern democracy, and those who hated Jackson loved his democracy. Wilson was just a terrible person, a "lost causer" who believed in eugenics and brought us into ww1 after running on not doing it due to heavily one sided "neutrality" used to bait the Germans. Also, for fun, his textbooks don't cite sources and even then barely cited first hand sources.
This is an excellent video, well done! I would also like to mention that the 1930s Dust Bowl had a major impact by killing the farming and agriculture across the Southern region. This definitely destroyed the Southern economy which helped contribute to the overall collapse of the entire nation’s economic infrastructure.
Yes the Dust Bowl was horrible, and led to large numbers of people moving to California My paternal great grandparents moved along with my grandmother to California during the Dust Bowl though my maternal great grandparents moved during the 20s from OK to CA. My mom's mom was a toddler and the last one born in OK before they moved, while my dad's mom was in high school when her family moved.
@@americanhistorygeek1926 Thanks sometimes I wonder if why I am such a major history buff is having so much family history on both sides at historical points in our country's growth as a nation. I have on both sides at least some ancestors that go back to at least the 1600s in MD, VA, and NC.
Our political instability has actually been worse, look at Nixon and Kennedy or Nixon after he won. Nixon was a polarizing figure, probably because of his large government policies and inability to take us out of the vietnam war quickly.
My top 5: 1. Smoot Hawley Tariff act: this law single handily ground global trade to a halt, once implemented everyone else got into the act by passing their own tariffs and soon enough you were paying 4-5x what an item costs to import it. 2. Easy access to credit, actually this can be linked to pretty much every recession in some way. Giving credit to people who can't afford it creates a cycle where the economy booms because people are buying stuff, then people can't afford to buy stuff because prices got too high, and then people start defaulting on loans because they can't afford them. 3. Too much faith in the Fed, back then people thought the Fed could get them out of anything so they made risky investments because they thought "well the Fed will just bail me out if this doesn't work" and of course when they didn't panic set in. 4. The Asset bubble you talked about 5. The disaster taking place in agriculture, the 20s was a good time for industry but it was a bad time for farmers. Due to producing tons of food to feed the soldiers of WWI it lead to a oversupply of food in the market which lead to food prices dropping which lead to farmers not making money and going bankrupt. Then you had the dust bowl in the 1930s that only made things worse.
I have spent a huge amount of my time researching politics trying to find anything remotely fair and impartial, and your channel seems to actually meet that. Thank you so much for what you do. It's weirdly relaxing to watch a political video and not have to spend a couple days mulling it over to try to properly separate wheat from chaff amongst the claims. Obviously, I'm still going to think and analyze and all that, but being able to more directly learn without trying to find truth behind a wall of bias makes my life far more enjoyable.
I think a big part of our problem with this issue is our cultural obsession with the singular. We love it when a problem has one clear and decisive cause that can be remedied by one clear and decisive action. In reality, you're more likely to find five or six different causes and a host of potential solutions than just one, and people don't like it.
Hey Mr. Beat, just wanted to say that I got your book “The Ultimate American Presidential Election Book” for Christmas a few weeks ago and it is absolutely fantastic. I’ve been reading it and learned so much. I love all your videos and keep up the good work!
THANK YOU FOR THIS SIMPLIFIED view of the causes of the Depression! I'm having my students in my U.S. History class watch it, and not "the other " videos!!
This might not be mentioned by other people, but honestly, as someone whose second language is English, I really appreciate that you speak slowly in your videos. Majority of the other channels I’ve watched seem to rap through all the information and I have to rewind SO many times to get it. I know that I can slow down the speed of the videos here on RU-vid, but it sounds so weird lol. Anyway, thank you for your videos and the talking pace you use to educate us!
okay so i'm in apush and this is the topic we're learning about in class this very minute and I just found it kinda funny that you uploaded this when you did lol
You're one of the best history/political channels on RU-vid. You use evidence, common sense, and history to make informed judgements of people's character or an event. I love that so much. We need more people who view the political landscape like you do.
Here’s what happened, the stocks were going down like normal and everyone was so scared that they started selling in mass numbers which effectively ruined the markets.
It's interesting how the People get seen as the bad guys instead of the victims. The same narrative was spun during the 2008 housing market crash. People were seen as taking out more than they could afford rather than the predatory lending practices telling people they COULD afford it. There's a great Documentary that came out this year at thecon.tv
You're basically saying monetary policy resulted in the Depression. It seems to me that for such a big social impact something larger was going on. I'm under the impression there was a large move of people from the countryside into the cities, perhaps as a result of the mechanization of agriculture. City economies could not handle the excess labor supply and thus depression. That may be wrong, but something much larger was going on than what you're describing and it was also a worldwide phenomenon, not just a U.S. one.
Another reason why its " Great Depression " and not just a standard "depression " is because the US made up about 50% of the world economy at that time . Now that there are other countries like China that are going to eventually become the largest country , the risk of a depression maybe diversified
That’s not true at all. The US’ share of the global economy in 1940 was 20.7%. I couldn’t readily find a statistic for the 1920s or 30s so I think this is a fair one to go off of for the sake of the argument.
idk much, but one documentary covering how some of the major western countries fared during the Great Depression mentioned how America was somehoe involved in their financial problems - either through loaning those countires money or having major percentages of business in their bigger banks. It seemed that America helped bring other countries down. When I say America, I mostly mean our financial 'experts' who gamble for a living with stocks, bonds, certificates, etc.
That was the big problem with the economic downturn of 2008. The subprime mortgage crisis was a bunch of folks trying to pay for houses they couldn't pay for off of their loans. The Great Depression started the same way, with poor loans. George Santayana was right, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Some say the Democrats, first Clinton, then Congress, put pressure on Fannie Mae and other financial institutions to ease lending criteria for loans, making mortgages easier to obtain.
Hey Mr. Beat, I want to thank you because I told my teacher about the election of 1912 and he said I am smart. If I never saw your presidential election of 1912 I would never know about. Love the video and keep up the great work! (:
@@lupinthethird5784 How? I mean, I already heard many keynesian pro-WW2 arguments that claim that the military spending and draft boosted the economy, how spending taxmoney in weapons, ammunition, tanks, fighters and navy helped the civilian Economy (industries, farms, shops and etc)? Since it depends in the efficienct allocation of capital goods and labor, so, the labor used by the Military did not create any positive economic output (soldiers don't make goods, services or develop any New Tech). On the contrary, the war efforts spent and consumed scarce resources (capital, machinery, raw materials and labor) in the civil sector, only increasing the country's material scarcity. For the sake of that Argument, the "best" thing that WW2 did was pushing New R&D projects. By the way, I am not saying that USA should not join WW2, but It was not positive for the Economy, despite being a good action in world scale.
@@brunoacostasilva Well before the Americans really joined the fray the United States was a major exporter (especially to the Empire) which brought money into the US economy. That would have helped, no?
@@lupinthethird5784 The USA was oficially neutral until that happened, so, It was no the USA joining the war that helped the Economy, but the Allies importing war materials and supplies from USA due to war efforts in Europe.
Hi @Mr. Beat, Another great video! I've been following your content for the better half of a year now and I love your pragmatic and unbiased approach to history and politics. Please keep up the great work. Also, thank you very much for the Blinkist promotion in this video because this will save me a ton of time with reading. Stay blessed and healthy!
Looking back today in 2023, it's frankly startling how our current economic situation and inflation problems have been caused by the same issues that caused the Great Depression - a lot of people using credit to buy stuff, asset bubbles (especially in Real Estate), super low interest rates that were then jacked up in a hurry, and (to a lesser extent today) a lack of trust in the banking system.
I remember how I had to hold a presentation on the Great Depression back in 11th grade and I really struggled to find any information on the cause. It's so great you put this up! This will definitely increase the quality of history education in a lot of schools!
I consider myself a follower of the Austrian school, but I do appreciate what Keynes brought to the table. One of the things Keynes pushed for was a balanced budget during the good times, this is something that America needs to follow if we’re going to follow the Keynesian model.
As another follower of the Austrian school, I truly believe the Keynes was a tool of the political class. It is hard for me to believe Keynes was NOT aware of the dangers of a government created and influenced “independent” central banking institution charged with the responsibility to “control” the money/credit supply without ANY concern of potential government corruption/exploitation... Only someone psychologically trapped in an academic/theoretical world OR someone COMPLICIT in advocating such a system SO OBVIOUSLY rife for exploitation, abuse and the accumulation of MASSIVE DEBT by politicians (who have EVERY incentive to do so in the name of “representing” their constituent districts, special interests and lobbyists with as many “goodies” as possible) would openly and honestly “claim” that such a system were plausible IF politicians “practiced” prudent and restrained taxing and spending policies with OTHER PEOPLES MONEY...
Perhaps the biggest problem with Keynes is the durability of his ideas. If you do not factor in human behavior, then your ideas are useless. Like parasites, governments only grow in size and backing down on government spending will cost politicians votes. They’re simply not going to cut back on the budget when we cycle into expansionary periods. Like John Doe mentioned, I believe his ideas to be a way for the elite to convince the average person that the theft of central banking is actually in our best interests. Krugman does the same thing now. I believe him to be a smart man, but he has completely sold his soul to profit from the general public’s poor understanding of economics.
When I went to UC Berkeley (class of 72) I lived in Bowles Hall, at the top of the campus. It was named after Chester Bowles, who donated the money for it. But he died at the beginning of the Depression and his wife lived there as the first house mother, until her fortune was regained.
Everything is right but the tariffs and maybe the wealth inequality. The wealth inequality made things worse but there was more wealth inequality in the 1890s when the economy was fine. Tariffs had nothing to do with the Great Depression in the US, the depression was in full gear when we impossed most of the tariffs all the tariffs did was make Americas problem everyones problem.
I’d really like to know if Calvin coolidge’s policies were a cause of the Great Depression? He’s one of my favorite presidents and I always though that because of his deregulation, he made the economy stronger and from most of what I read that seems to be true but I’d really like your opinion. Thanks
Well, if he had regulated tightly enough to prevent the depression, he would’ve started one. If Coolidge had been president and not Hoover during the depression, it wouldn’t have been the great depression.
He did a good job. Hoover messed up with tariffs and big government. Calvin did say that "for eight years that man has given me unsolicited advice... None of it good"
Ben Bernanke 13:55 was the biggest asset the USA had going into the recession in 2008. He was the Fed Chairman but was also a scholar of the causes of the Great Depression. The real economy reasons you state like bubbles and demand etc explain why the USA had a recession in 1930 but it was the policy responses to that recession that turned it into a depression. The Fed at that time thought allowing banks to collapse was a good response as the weak would fail and the strong banks would survive. But that ignores the fact banks create money through the fractional system so in effect the bank failures reduced the money supply in a massive way. Bernanke knew to not allow banks to fail in 2008, it wasn't popular to bail out banks but it prevented a depression and we should all be grateful. Great video Mr Beat.
Since your list is what CAUSED the Great Depression, I disagree with your list. Much of your list is symptoms, as you even point out in how interrelated each of your points are. My bias is toward the Austrians and 100% against the Keynesians, so you wouldn’t be surprised to think I believe that most of your points are symptoms. The Fed was created in 1913 in response to an equally scary bank panic that JP Morgan sorted out pretty quickly. The Fed then created the mischief in trying to overcome what they feared was a depression after WW1. That easy money policy caused the asset bubbles, easy credit and weak dollar which caused farms to overproduce to supply foreign markets and banks to lend way to much to the overheated ag sector. Smoot Hawley was a ‘28 campaign promise of Hoover, so everyone already expected the trade war which sealed the deal for a worldwide depression. The fragile banking sector helped everything crash and was caused by insanely interstate banking laws which no longer exist. Everything precipitated from the easy money policy-even Ben Bernanke said so to Milton Friedman (and Bernanke is a huge Keynesian and Friedman is a Monetarist, not an Austrian). I agree with almost all of your facts, but you need to reassess cause-and-effect. Thank you.
If you told me 5 years ago id actually voluntary watch something like this id think you were crazy cuz this stuffs boring. But here i am actually voluntary learning
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"Raising taxes ... is one of the worst things to do." *remembers Trump's tax code will increase taxes this year unless a new tax code is passed* "Heh, I'm in danger."
Well, I know what caused it for me and I don't know if I'll ever feel true happiness again... Sorry for the sad thought; it's just what first entered my thoughts... So, anyway, to say something more upbeat: congratulations on approaching 300,000 subs! 👍
Good video Teach, also there’s nothing wrong with having a bias as long as you’re honest about it and give the facts first....Why do you always try to sound unbiased? I know you like Kyle Kulinski so I assume you lean left at the very least if not you’re a secret progressive 😂 Your top 5 reasons make sense, but like Karl Marx says Capitalism always has recessions and depressions unless it’s regulated and that’s a fact. So maybe a future without capitalism would be a good thing. In the meantime the Scandinavian countries model is great for now
I am an economist and throughout my life with economists, this is the most unbiased answer we all agree on; the economy stopped functioning as a result of the Spanish Flu, and after that the roaring 20s started, people went around spending money like no tomorrow, mostly money they didn't have. and then they couldn't pay off their debt, a lull in the labor market that happens in the normal business cycle was overextended due to the debt everyone took on credit within the roaring 20s. This turned the recession into a depression, and we had to rely off of agriculture economy and distribution more, this coincided with the dust bowl. This dust bowl extended the depression even more because the need for agriculture couldn't be met. The thing that got America out of this was the perfectly times World War, Wars are usually the biggest boost in an economy for uninvolved nations, and here was around the time before the world war where Britain started buying overwhelming amounts of America goods in preparation for something happening, evidence being if you look at export rates, Britain started preparing for something, which stimulated our economy. the combination of horrible timing and amazing timing is what the Great Depression is. Thats just the take I have absorbed off of the people I know in my field. It is hotly debated, and I also don't think it is political at all.
GREAT VIDEO!!!! Please please please do a video on best political debate moments/one liners. For example, Bentsen: “you’re no Jack Kennedy”. Or Reagan’s: “Are we better off than we were four years ago?” That would be great!!!! Thank u
