buy custom The Great Depression essay

buy custom The Great Depression essay The 1930s were a significant decade in the economic and political history of the United States. This was a period of significant social and cultural changes instigated by the worst economic crises ever witnessed in the American history. This economic crisis later came to be known as the great depression. The great depression refers to the period of global economic depression that lasted from 1929 to 1939.Between the onset of the decline and 1932, the Dow Jones Averages had lost approximately 89 % of its market value.The overall unemployment rate rose to the highest levels, and the banks failed in unprecedented ways. Causes of the great depression The cause of the great depression was a combination of factors that varied from domestic to worldwide conditions. The top five causes of the great depression as indicated by historians and economists were; stock market crash of 1929, bank failures, and reduction in purchasing across the board, American economic policy with Europe and drought conditions (Kelly, Top 5 Causes of the Great Depression). Stock Market Crash of 1929 It all became clear on 29th October 1929 that the start of the great depression had begun. Within hours, the stock market lost all the gains for the whole year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average reduced from the previous day close of 260.64, opening at 252.6 it fell to 212.34, closing a bit up at 230.6, an 11 % loss (Amadeo, Black Tuesday). The stock market indices that represent the U.S. economy in terms of its industry, transportation and utilities are called Dow Jones Averages. They are calculated by taking the sum of the stock prices of the companies in each index, then the total is divided by the number of companies (Amadeo).on that same day, shares worth 16.4 million were sold exceeding the record of 12.9 million shares, which were traded on Black Thursday (Amadeo, Black Tuesday). Black Thursday signaled the beginning of stock market crash in the U.S. history (Amadeo, Black Thursday).two months after the original crush in October, stockholders had lost more than 40 billion dolla rs. Although the stock market started to recover on the losses, by the end of 1930, the market couldnt take any more, and America entered into the great depression. Bank Failures The failure of the Federal Reserve to support the banks led to the reduction of cash and failure of banks in massive scales (Dallas and Dallas). In the course of 1930, over 9,000 banks failed. Bank deposits were uninsured and, therefore, as banks failed people lost their savings. The surviving banks, concerned for their own survival and being unsure of the economic situation, stopped giving out new loans. This led to less and less expenditures (Kelly). American Economic Policy with Europe When the businesses began to fail, the government introduced the Smoot-Hawley Tariff in 1930 in an effort to protect the American companies. It is this Smoot-Hawley Tariff act of June 1930 that raised the US tariffs to historic levels in order to protect the American industries which at that time were facing fierce competition. This competition was from the European counterparts who had sharply increased their production after World War II. This was also in line with the one of the Herbart Hoovers campaign plede to protect the American farmer. He therefore raised tariff levels to the record high on the imported agricultural products (Kelly, What is the Smoot-Hawley Tariff?). This act led to the decline of the American imports from the Europe. The figures show that, from 1929 high of 1,334 million dollars, the imports reduced to just 390 million dollars in 1932.In addition, the U.S. exports to Europe fell from 2,341 million dollars to 784 million dollars. At the end, this act just cau sed and fostered distrust among nations leading to less cooperation in either the political or economic realms which in turn aggravated the great depression impact on the America (Kelly, What is the Smoot-Hawley Tariff?). Drought Conditions This was not a direct cause of the great depression, but it played a crucial role in the matter. The drought that occurred in the Mississippi valley in 1930 was in such a magnitude that people involved couldnt even pay the taxes or other debts owed to the banks and they had to sell their farms with no savings in return (Kelly, Top 5 Causes of the Great Depression). Other explanations of the causes of the great depression include The Death of Benjamin Strong Benjamin strong was the governor of the New York Federal Reserve Bank from October 1914 until his death in 1928. During his tenure, he had an strong interest in international affairs and promoted more effective cooperation among the worlds central banks (Benjamin Strong Jr.).The death of Benjamin Strong on October 16, 1928 led to the end of the golden era in America. In my opinion, his death marked the beginning of the united states treacherous journey into the Great Depression. Bens successors failed miserably. They didnt comprehend the Federal Reserves critical role in the maintaining the health of the banking system. When a light recession struck the economy in 1929, the new leaders of the Fed made a deadly decision. In 1929, the banking system desperately needed an infusion of cash from the Federal Reserve. Instead of putting money into the system, the federal reserve drained it out. (Dallas and Dallas 251-252). This reduction of cash in the banks caused them to fail on a massive scale. In few weeks, national bank runs were back but the Federal Reserve failed to help them. This resulted to banking crises that threw United States and eventually the whole world into the deepest recession in history (Dallas and Dallas).this resulted to banks failing, factories being closed and people losing their jobs. Why the Depression Lasted For So Long With the start of the great depression, there were so many losses for companies and institutions that they started to introduce their survival policies. These policies in return led to the reduction of consumer spending and therefore aggravated the process of depression. The issues that led to the prolonging of the great depression can be summed up as below; Unemployment Throughout 1930, consumer spending in America started to decline which meant businesses had to reduce the jobs and the pay for the jobs that remained. This led to massive unemployment. In addition, the drought in most of the Americas reeduced the jobs in the agricultural sector. This led to the decline of the consumer spending and reduction in the living standards of the people. Government Intervention The government intervention in creating an influence of price controls and public finance caused more harm than good. Most economists agreed that price ceilings created shortages of consumers goods and that price floors resulted into unmarketable surpluses without benefiting anyone (Hlsmann). The growth of the state increased the cost of production and taxation of capital induced capitalists consumed the wealth of investors and citizens. When the law of demand and supply was hindered, and unemployment ceased to be a temporary issue. The self-regulation of the market was also strongly interfered with by the labor unions which were acting under the protection and support of the government (Hlsmann). This led to the abuse of the property rights of the capitalists as well as the human rights of the workers and prospective workers when the unions pushed for wages way above the market rates. This made it impossible to hire all those who would have found employment and overall unemployment rate increased. With this, it can be summed that the government intervention in the solving of the great depression didnt just reduce the effects but on the contrary they prolonged the duration of the depression. Policies like Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act which authorized the highest taxes in history of America on imports of agricultural products and manufactured items, led to decline in the import export business which consequently deteriorated the business with the west. This led to the downfall and amplification of the depression all over the world. Technological Advancement Emil Lederer, argued that the unemployment was as a result of fast technological progress. He argued that the growth was so fast that technological advancement was so fast that the market participants were somehow intrinsically impossible. He argues that these changes replaced the costly human labor with cheaper machinery at such speeds that entrepreneurs could not keep pace with. This eventually led to massive unemployment and consumer spending which prolonged the depression (Hlsmann). Failure of Revitalizing Private Sector The governments failure to develop the private sector led to reduced employment opportunities which continued the recession era. The new deals greatest failure lay in its inability to produce revitalization in private investment that would have impacted on greater production and more jobs (Higgs).The most part of the New Deal relied on private confidence to invest. President Roosevelt undermined the business confidence and trust. By 1935, Roosevelt was less worried about business backlash and had confidence in the prospects for economic recovery (Brownlee).The men around Roosevelt were skeptical of the business ability to act in the national interest. This led to further investor mistrust on the government and discouraged investments. If the government had initiated the programs to create more employment, then the living standards of the citizens would have improved and consequently the consumer spending would have improved. This would have led to the market stabilization and end of the depression Buy custom The Great Depression essay

How to Be Your Own Best Editor While Remaining a Writer - Freewrite Store

How to Be Your Own Best Editor While Remaining a Writer - Freewrite Store You’re not a writer! Well, at least for a time. You’re an editor. Today’s guest post is by Marsh Cassady. Marsh has Ph.D in theatre and is a former actor, director, and university professor. He is the author of fifty-seven published books and hundreds of shorter pieces. His plays have been performed in Canada, Mexico and the U.S., including Off-Broadway. You’re not a writer! Well, at least for a time. You’re an editor. For about eight years I was co-publisher of a small press and learned quickly what to look for in query letters, proposals, and in fiction and nonfiction. Yet I thought of myself mainly as a writer. The weird thing was that when I wore my writer’s cap, I didn’t think like an editor anymore, and I found I was just as puzzled as any other writer about what would be acceptable to a publisher. Then one day, it was like the proverbial lightbulb exploded inside my head. Hey, dummy, I told myself, you’ve been an editor for a long time and, in fact, still are. So look at your own work through an editor’s eyes. Seems pretty absurd that it took me so long to realize this and to approach my own writing as if it were a submission to the press or to the literary journal of which I was fiction editor. It’s a matter of roles, a matter of putting on a different cap. Of course, you’re still the same person- at least to a degree. Look at it this way. At work you may be an attorney and at home a mom, two vastly different roles. The same is true with writing and editing, each important but very much different from each other. In your role as an attorney you wouldn’t ground a client for staying out beyond curfew, nor would you threaten to take legal action against your three-year-old. So now is the time to hang up the writer’s cap and assume the role of editor. What being an editor boils down to is being objective. View your own writing as it were done by someone else. Is this person you’re judging a good writer? What makes her or him good? What don’t you like about the style, the organization, the content? One thing that helps is to put away your writing for a few days or a week. When you take it out again, you have some distance between you and your work. You aren’t as emotionally involved with it now, so it’s easier to approach it objectively. The more you can distance yourself from the work, the better. I knew a successful poet once who didn’t believe in revising her work. Whatever she wrote stayed the way she’d first written it. There also used to be a columnist for the San Diego Union Tribune who did the same. But most of us don’t work that way. Most of us have to revise our work at least two or three times- sometimes much more often until it meets our goals. In fact, in one of my books on writing I include an excerpt from my nonfiction that is my eighth revision! And still I continued to revise it extensively with handwritten changes from the top of the page to the bottom. What are the sorts of things should you look for in editing your writing? Is the work interesting? Is the piece something you yourself would like to read? If not, why not? Is it that you don’t like the subject matter? Years ago in the writing workshop I used to lead a man came to the meeting one night and said he was writing a film script. He said he didn’t like the subject matter but thought it would be something that would sell. Nope! He was a good writer but not for this. He finally gave up because it was too much of a chore to continue. Of course, it’s possible to do a good job with a subject you hate, but why do it unless it’s part of your job and you have no choice? Did you make the writing too formal, too dry, too prosaic? It’s important to hook the reader’s attention right away. Did you do that? Assume you’re an editor at a publishing company or magazine. Would you want to read through the entire piece you wrote? When I was a book editor, I knew within a page or two- sometimes less- whether I wanted to publish the book or not. Would you want to publish what you wrote? Was your lead the most effective you can come up with? How does the rest of the piece hold up? If it’s nonfiction, have you included enough specifics- examples or illustrations or anecdotes to support what you say? Is the writing easy to follow? Does it flow well? Are there any bumps, any distractions? If so, what caused them? Maybe you need better transitions. Maybe you just need to explain things a little better- more interestingly, more succinctly. Or maybe you have some extraneous stuff that doesn’t support the central idea. Is the piece well-organized? There are many types of organization, from chronological to spatial to order of importance. Have you chosen a type of organization that fits well with the sort of piece you wrote? Have you considered the organization or just written haphazardly as the ideas come to mind? The latter rarely works for a finished piece- whether a personality profile piece, a column, or a how-to article. You need to follow a particular type of organization that is appropriate for what you’ve written? For instance, you probably wouldn’t choose spatial organization for a novel- though it is possible, with one section taking place in New York, the next in Los Angles, and the third in London. However, within each of these sections you’d probably want to use chronological order and maybe even start the first section earlier in time than the next and the next. And you probably wouldn’t use order of importance in discussing a historical event. Is the writing coherent? No matter what you’re writing, you need to be sure you’ve tied everything together. Each part, in some way, has to relate to the piece as a whole. In fiction this means everything has to be important to the plot and/or theme, either directly or indirectly. All elements need to support the central idea. And generally, the less important a character or a setting, the less space you should give them. However, I did also say â€Å"indirectly.† Don’t throw away a scene that points up the character, for instance or explains the reasons behind characters’ actions. In nonfiction everything also should relate to the central idea. If you’re writing about a candidate’s stance on an issue, you wouldn’t usually talk about his hobby of collecting ceramic mugs from around the world. Is the writing clear? Is the writing easy to follow, or would the reader have to struggle to understand what you mean? Do you use language appropriate to your readers? For instance, you’d use different language for explaining what quarks are to a junior high class than you would to an adult education class.   Is the dialogue natural and appropriate? Does the dialogue reveal character?   Does it help create the proper atmosphere? If the scene is one of tension, does the dialogue reflect this? Does it help the reader understand the sort of universe you’ve created? Does the dialogue advance the plot? All dialogue should have a purpose; each word should be important for one reason or another. Does your dialogue sound natural? Although dialogue resembles everyday speech, it is very much different but still has to appear natural. In conversation we change the subject often and abruptly. We ramble. We use a lot of extra words. Your characters can’t do that, unless it’s to point up a character trait, for instance. Dialogue also has to be appropriate for each character, each of whom speaks in his or her own way. A recent immigrant from Russia would speak much differently than would a surfer dude. A person with a Ph.D. in physics would speak differently than would a short order cook- at least in most cases. When writing dialogue, you need to consider everything important about the character- background, education, present circumstances, personality, and the emotional content of the scene. Is the dialogue easy to follow? Even if your character has an accent, don’t make the writing difficult to follow. Readers today probably wouldn’t be happy to read pieces like Joel Chandler Harris’ Uncle Remus stories with lines like: â€Å""One time," said Uncle Remus...way back yander, ’fo’ you wuz bomed, honey, en ’fo’ Mars John er Miss Sally wuz bomed-way back yander ’fo’ enny un us wuz bomed, de animils en de creeturs sorter ’lecshuneer roun’m ’mong deyselves, twel at las’ ’dey 'greed fer ter have ’sembly.† Does any of the writing sound awkward? I’m nearly finished reading a novel by one of my favorite authors, but I was disappointed to see that at several times in the book he used passive voice. So far as I remember, he never did this before. And it yanked me right out of the action. So avoid passive voice. It should be cut.   Oops. What I really mean is: You need to cut it out! You also need to consider if the words you’ve chosen are the best you can come up with, that the work doesn’t sound too stilted, that what you write matches the overall style. An academic piece, for instance, would use a more formal style than a travel article. Check for repetition. Recently, I edited a book for a friend. In one paragraph of four lines I found three instances of the word â€Å"painting.† He objected to my editing out two of them. He said I was ruining his style. Uh, uh, uh! Repeating words or phrases calls attention to itself and detracts from the writing. Of course, this doesn’t apply to so-called invisible words like â€Å"the,† â€Å"an,† â€Å"a,† â€Å"and†, etc. But any time you repeat words like mouse or quark or sweetheart in close proximity to the original, you are risking alienating the reader. An exception, of course, is when you deliberately repeat a word for emphasis. The same, of course, is true of phrases. Unless there’s a good reason, beware of repeating phrases within several paragraphs of each other. Don’t Overwrite. Is there anything extraneous?   If so, cut it.   This is especially true in the matter of research. It’s been said that research is like an iceberg- two-thirds should be hidden beneath the surface. In other words, you should inspire confidence in the reader that you know your subject thoroughly, that you know much more than is included in the article, that you are the expert. On the other hand, you shouldn’t expect the reader to suffer through absolutely everything you’ve learned. Proofreading To many writers this is the most tedious part of getting a manuscript ready for publication, and it’s more complicated by the fact that when proofing our own writing, we often â€Å"see† what we expect to see and not what’s actually there. Also, proofing cannot be rushed. You have to be meticulous in doing it. One trick that can work well is to read the manuscript backward. This does away with expectations of what you think is there because now the material- though it doesn’t make sense- is completely new, and typos and small errors stand out more. For instance: â€Å"more. out stand errors small and typos and new, completely is.† When you do this, it forces you to slow down. Read your writing aloud to yourself or to someone else. When you read the piece aloud, you’ll be surprised at how many typos and other â€Å"pickies† you catch. This is because you’re forced to slow down and concentrate on each word. Thus, the little things that elude you in a silent readthrough now become much more apparent. Finally, if you can, put the manuscript away one more time and then back to it again in a day or a week. Okay, now you’ve done your stint as an editor. Take off the editor’s cap, hang it up, and grab the writer’s cap from the rack. You are not an editor any longer- at least for now. Today you’re a writer. Good luck with the new piece.       Marsh Cassady has Ph.D in theatre and is a former actor, director, and university professor. He is the author of fifty-seven published books and hundreds of shorter pieces. His plays have been performed in Canada, Mexico and the U.S., including Off-Broadway. For about eight years he was co-publisher of a small press and a literary journal. He has also taught creative writing at the University of California, San Diego, and for thirty-five years led all-genre writing workshops.