Great Depression

The Great Depression was a massive global economic recession (or "depression") that ran from 1929 to approximately 1939. It led to numerous bank failures, high unemployment, as well as dramatic drops in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), industrial production, stock market share prices and virtually every other measure of economic growth. It is generally considered to have bottomed out in 1933, but it was not until well after the end of World War II before such indicators as industrial production, share prices and global GDP surpassed their 1929 levels.

Related Topics:
Economic - Recession - 1929 - 1939 - Unemployment - Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - Stock market - 1933 - World War II

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What gave this downturn the name the "Great Depression" was that it was by far the largest sustained decline in industrial production and productivity in the century and a half for which economic records have been regularly kept, and the fact that its impact was felt throughout the entire industrialized world and their trading partners in less developed nations.

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The term Great Depression can refer to the economic event, but it can also refer to the cultural period, often called simply "The Depression", and to the political response to the economic events.

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