The Great Depression in Outline

It is straightforward to narrate the slide of the world into the Great Depression. The 1920's saw a stock market boom in the U.S. as the result of general optimism: businessmen and economists believed that the newly-born Federal Reserve would stabilize the economy, and that the pace of technological progress guaranteed rapidly rising living standards and expanding markets. The U.S. Federal Reserve's attempts in 1928 and 1929 to raise interest rates to discourage stock speculation brought on an initial recession. 


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In an effort to improve my understanding of the Great Depression, it was the impact of Europe's economic decline that peaked my interest of late; and the reading of this information somewhat helped. Additional notes will be posted once I clean them up.