The Second Great Depression

Are we entering the Second Great Depression?

What is?
The Great Depression was a dramatic, worldwide economic downturn starting in most places in 1929 and ending at different times in the 1930s for different countries. It was the largest and most important economic depression in world history, and is used in the 21st century as a benchmark on how far a modern economy could possibly fall. The Great Depression originated in the United States; historians most often use as a starting date the stock market crash on October 29, 1929, known as Black Tuesday. The end of the depression in the U.S. is associated with the onset of the war economy of World War II, beginning around 1939.

Causes?

1. Debt
2. Trade Decline and the U.S. Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act
3. U.S. Federal Reserve and Money Supply
4. Lack of government deficit spending
5. Inequality of wealth and income

Effects
This Great Depression involves many countries:

1. Australia
2. Canada
3. East Asia
4. France
5. Germany
6. Latin America
7. Netherlands
8. South Africa
9. Soviet Union
10. United Kingdom
11. United States

Now - The coming Second Great Depression

1. Oil price up and down
2. The director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), James B. Lockhart III. on September 7, 2008 announced his decision to place two Government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae (Federal National Mortgage Association) and Freddie Mac (Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation), into conservatorship run by FHFA
3. Plans were announced on 14 September 2008 for Bank of America to acquire Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., if approved by regulators and shareholders of both companies.
4. On September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection listing bank debt of $613 billion, $155 billion in bond debt and assets worth $639 billion. The filing is the largest bankruptcy in US history. Until the bankruptcy procedures are completed, the company is still in existence
5. People are concerned that AIG, one of the world's largest insurers could be the next financial giant to fall after Lehman Brothers.
6. What's next?

Source: The Great Depression, Wiki