Causes of the Great Depression

1. What industrial weakness signaled a declining economy in the 1920s?    
The industrial weakness that signaled a declining economy in the 1920's was the superficial prosperity. As the reading states "The superficial prosperity of the late 1920's shrouded weaknesses that would signal the onset of the great depression"
2. What did the experience of farmers and consumers at this time suggest about the health of the economy?    
The experience of farmers and consumers at this time suggests that everyone during the time was going into greater and greater debt. Considering at one time, the farmers were doing well in their business, but after the war demand fell and they lowered their prices. This only forced them into more debt because with lower prices they were farming more products and in order to farm more products you need equipment and you have to take out loans to get equipment. Demand for crops still weren't good. As the reading says "Many lost their farms when banks foreclosed and seized the property as payment for the debt" This suggests that the economy was digging itself a deeper hole and everything was just going badly during this time.
3. How did speculation and margin buying cause stock prices to rise?    
Speculation and margin buying caused stock prices to rise because people were using the little money they had to invest it in stocks and margin buying encouraged this because someone could pay "a small percentage of a stock's price as a down payment and borrowing the rest" made people want to invest what they had on the off chance of gaining a profit from it. This was not discouraged and the unruly buying and selling made the stock prices rise.
4. What happened to ordinary workers during the Great Depression?    
During the great depression, ordinary workers were losing there jobs, millions and millions of people were being laid off. As the reading says "unemployment leaped from 3 percent" up to 25 percent during The Great Depression.
5. How did the Great Depression affect the world economy?    
The Great Depression affected the world economy because in Europe and Germany, they were paying off their debts from the war, Germany paying for damages they had caused and Europe "trying to recover from the ravages of World War I" This made trading and importing European goods difficult as well as selling American products and manufacturing goods abroad.
Define: 
a. Price-Supports: The government would buy surplus crops and sell them on the world market for guaranteed prices.  
b. Credit:  An arrangement in which costumers agreed to buy products now and pay later for their purchases.
c. Dow Jones Industrial Average: The most widely used barometer of the stock market's health                     d. Speculation:   buying stocks and bonds on the chance of a quick profit
e. Buying on Margin:    paying a small percentage of a stock's price as a down payment and borrowing the rest
f. Black Tuesday:    October 29, when the bottom of the market and the nation's confidence fell out
g. Hawley-Smoot Tariff: An act that established the highest protective tariff in united states's history