Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution early in the nineteenth century the United States ad experienced recessions or panics at least every twenty years. But none was as severe or lasted as long as the Great Depression. Only as the economy shifted toward a war mobilization in the late 1930s did the grip of the depression finally ease. Stock prices had been rising steadily since 1921, but in 1928 and 1929 they surged forward, with the average price of stocks rising over 40 percent. The stock market was totally unregulated. Margin buying in particular proceeded at a feverish pace...
and farm income, already low, was more than cut in half. During this period 9,000 banks went bankrupt or failed. The consumer price index declined by 25 percent and corporate profits fell from 10 billion to 1 billion dollars. Most shocking was that unemployment rose from 3.2 percent to 24.9 percent from 1929 to 1933.

While the collapse of the stock market in 1929 may have triggered economic turmoil, it alone was not responsible for the Great Depression. The depression throughout the nation and the world was a result of a combination of factors that matured during the 1920s