The Economic Boom of the 1920's

After the war there was a recession, which is a slow down or shrinking of the economy

This was down to the rapid demobilisation of troops and cancellation of war time contracts

There was a need to make thee transition from a war economy to a consumer driven economy

This meant that the boom did not occur until 1922-29

There was a boom in 1922

The boom of the 1920's was unrivalled and unprecidented

Maldwyn Jones- '...business made huge profits, jobs were generally easy to find, standards of living rose appreciatively'

People thought the boom would last forever

Hoover- 'We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land. The poor house is vanishing from among us.

On Tuesday 29th October 1929, the wall street stock market crashed, later becoming known as 'Black Tuesday', this plunged the world into the Great Depression

The Wall Street Crash was the greatest stock market crash in the history of the United States

Some historians such as Galbraith believe that confidence was the main reason for the boom and that the crash was due to a lack of it.

GNP (Gross National Product) rose from $72.4 billion (1919) to $104 billion (1929)

Average life expectancy rose to 60 years (1930) compared to 47 years (1900)

Real wages rose by 26%

Industrial output per worker rose by 43%

80-100 million Americans went to the movies each week

One million fridges bought in 1929

Attendance at sporting events rose

General motors earnings went from $173 million (1920) to $1.5 billion (1929)

Inflation never rose above 1%

Unemployment fell from 11.9% to 3.2%

$852 million worth of radios sold in 1929 alone

63% of Americans lived in electric-lit dwellings in 1927 compared to 16% in 1912

Hours of work declined- 44 in 1929 compared with 47 in 1920