1.

Introduction:
The Great Depression (1929-39) was the deepest and longest-lasting
economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world. In the United
States, the Great Depression began soon after the stock market crash of October 1929,
which sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors. Over the next
several years, consumer spending and investment dropped, causing steep declines in
industrial output and rising levels of unemployment as failing companies laid off
workers. By 1933, when the Great Depression reached its peak, some 13 to 15 million
Americans were unemployed and nearly half of the countrys banks had failed. Though
the relief and reform measures put into place by President Franklin D. Roosevelt helped
lessen the worst effects of the Great Depression in the 1930s, the economy would not
fully turn around until after 1939, when World War II kicked American industry into high
gear.
2. History:
The timing and severity of the Great Depression varied substantially across
countries. The Depression was particularly long and severe in the United
States and Europe; it was milder in Japan and much of Latin America. Perhaps not
surprisingly, the worst depression ever experienced by the world economy stemmed
from a multitude of causes. Declines in consumer demand, financial panics, and
misguided government policies caused economic output to fall in the United States,
while the gold standard, which linked nearly all the countries of the world in a network of
fixed currency exchange rates, played a key role in transmitting the American downturn
to other countries. The recovery from the Great Depression was spurred largely by the
abandonment of the gold standard and the ensuing monetary expansion. The economic
impact of the Great Depression was enormous, including both extreme human suffering
and profound changes in economic policy.
3. Definition:
The period of declining and lower economic activity in the worldwide economy
from the late 1920s through the 1930s.In the United States, it began with the
stock market crash in October 1929 and was characterized by a decline in
business activity into 1933.
4. Causes: