1920-30 Economic Boom

• GDP growth

  2% per year (double avg increases in price)
• From 19.. annual unemployment figures never rose above ..%

  1922 4%
• Real wages went up by %

  30%
• Republican Policies


  - minimal govt

  - low taxes
• Model T


  Henry Ford created the first mass produced car
• ... Model Ts produced in 19 years


  15 million
• 1925 Cost of Model T ford


  $400- an average workers 4 month salary
• By 1929 .... holding companies controlled most of America's electricity production


  16
• mechanisation took away .... jobs per year

  2 mil
• United Mine Workers members in 1920 vs 1928


  5 mil vs 75,000
• by ..... less than half the country lived in rural areas


  1920
• Value of farmland fell by

  30%
• Fordney-McCumber Tariff


  1922- raised protective tariff vs foreign imports
• Agricultural Credits Act


  1923

  - made low interest credit available
• Great Bull Market


  This was how the stock market was described in the 1920s when its prices were constantly rising
• By 1928 Fed Reserve only had ...... govt securities compared to .... of call loans outstanding


  $200 mil govt securities; $8 billion unpaid loans
• price of stocks and shares doubled between

  1926-29

  - value of shares was higher than the real worth of the economy
• 29th october 1929 paper value of stocks fell by


  $26 billion
• Return to the Gold Standard


  1925

  - Benjamin Strong ( head of Fed Res) backed Britain's decision to return to the gold standard and kept US IR low to support sterling
• ...% rise in interest rates in Aug 1929


  1%