Great Depression/Timelines

1850-1918

11 US recessions [1] including the panic of 1893

1914-18

First World War

General suspension of the gold standard.

1918

Treaty of Versailles: war reparations [2].

1919-21

UK: Post-war recession [3].

1921-23

USA: post-war recession [4].

1923

Germany: Hyperinflation [5].

1924

USA: Start of 1924-26 upturn [6]

1925

UK: Britain rejoins the gold standard.

1926

UK: General strike.

1927

US/UK/France Long Island meeting of central bankers to discuss UK plea to help the £ by raising the US discount rate [7].

USA: Federal Reserve Bank cuts its discount rate cut from 4% to 3.5% and makes large purchases US government securities [8].

Renewed economic upturn

1928

US Federal Reserve Bank raises its discount rate to 5%

1929

February

UK: Bank of England raises the bank rate fron 4.5% to 5.5%

August

USA: Start of a downturn in economic activity [9]

Federal Reserve Bank raises discount rate to 6%

October

USA: The stock market crash of 1929.

24 Black Thursday DJIA falls by 13%

28 Black Monday DJIA falls by 12.8%

29 Black Tuesday DJIA falls by 11.7%

1930-33

USA: The "Great Contraction"

Three waves of panic create a progressive collapse of the United States banking system, with the failure of nearly half of the banks and heavy. losses by the others.

1930

Failure of the Bank of United States [10].

USA: Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act [11][12]

GNP drops 9.4% from the previous year. The unemployment rate climbs from 3.2 to 8.7%. By the end of the year, 1,350 banks have closed.

1931

USA: banking crisis, with the failure of over 1800 banks.

UK: Sterling (£) Crisis [13].

World: Britain, Sweden and Japan leave the gold standard [14]

1932

USA: Reconstruction Finance Corporation [15] created

Federal Home Loan Act [16]

Unemployment is 25 percent.

National income is 50 percent below that of 1929.

Stock market is 75 percent below its 1929 high.

10,000 banks have failed since 1929, (40 percent of the 1929 total).

1933

USA: Trough of depression and start of recovery [17]

Franklin D. Roosevelt elected president.

President declares a banking holiday and temporarily closes all U.S. banks using the Emergency Banking Act 1933[18].

The National Recovery Administration and the Public Works Administration created by the National Recovery Act 1933 [19]

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation [20] created

Money supply is 40 percent lower than 1929.

Approximately 4,000 commercial banks fail.

1,700 S&Ls fail

1934

USA: GNP rises 7.7 percent, and unemployment falls to 21.7 percent.

1935

USA: GNP grows another 8.1 percent, and unemployment falls to 20.1 percent.

1936

1937

USA: Recession of 1937 [21]: industrial production down 40 percent; unemployment rises by 4 million; stock market drops by 48 percent.

1938

USA: Start of upturn