The worst period of the Depression followed the crash of the Wall Street financial markets in 1929. In Britain, unemployment peaked just below three million in 1932. A year before, in August, the Labour government had resigned and been replaced by a Conservative-dominated National Government. Although the British economy stabilised under the National Government and unemployment began a steady decline after 1935, it was only with re-armament in the period immediately before the outbreak of World War Two that the worst of the Depression could be said to be over.
What caused the huge crash?
Boom-bust theory
Keynesian, Monetarist, and Austrian economists agree that the Crash followed a speculative boom that had taken hold in the late 1920s, which had led millions of Americans to invest heavily in the stock market, even borrowing money to buy more stock. Banks lent heavily to fund this share-buying spree.
The rising share prices encouraged more people to invest, as they hoped the......
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