HISTORY (26) Discussion - Essay Example

Great Depression and Family Stories The year of 1929 saw the emergence of Great Depression (Romer, 2003). Wide spread unemployment, acute and harsh deflation and severe decline in the output were only economic woes faced by many families. I took this piece of discussion and met with my grandfather. When I asked him please, share with me some of your feelings when you saw that economic monster was going to take away every happiness and sense of relax from you. What were your feelings and how did you manage it?

My grandfather remained silent for a while, and then, he replied to me that we had never thought about it. If human suffering had any face then, it would not be incorrect to say that economic monster was there to play that role! I asked him was it caused by banks. He said no. it was mainly caused by stock prices which were experiencing an unusual level of upward increase. Furthermore, he contended that many people had lost their confidence on the economy after the year of 1929. Consequently, they preferred to withdraw their money.

I asked him “Do you believe that it is safe to avoid depositing cash in banks in these days?” He found it difficult to agree with me. He contended that it would be unwise to hold responsible banks for them and putting money in your own custody. Furthermore, he said by putting money at oneself would increase the risk of theft and snatching or robbery. Nowadays, there are more stringent measures on banks and other financial institutions for fund management in comparison with the economic measures of the era of Great Depression when the economic policies were neither strict nor having a tight control over many aspects of the economic policies.

References Romer, Christina. Great Depression. Available at http://www.econ.berkeley.edu/~cromer/great_depression.pdf [Accessed on 09 February, 2011]