Question

what did the economy look like during the great depression as compared to today in the covid19 recession

Answer 1

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, peak unemployment during the Great Depression hit a staggering 24.9 percent in 1933; in 1929, just four years before, unemployment was just 3.2 percent. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate was 3.5 percent last February (the figure does not take into account the coronavirus-related layoffs that have increased).

In 1930, U.S. gross domestic product, the amount of all the goods and services produced by the government, fell by 8.5 percent as the economy contracted; it lost another 6.4 percent in 1931, and yet another 12.9 percent in 1932. Until 1934, the year after the New Deal was first enacted, it did not ease back into the black again. The forecasts for Wall Street were still grim, if marginally less dire than Bullard's: Goldman Sachs expected a 24 percent decline next quarter last week, while JPMorgan forecast 14 percent.

After the catastrophic stock market crash of 1929, it took the United States more than three years to rebound. According to figures from Morningstar Direct, the Dow Jones Manufacturing Average lost a little over 30 percent over the course of one month during the midst of the Great Depression in 1931. The Dow has lost 24.5 percent since the latest sell-off started late last month. According to Bespoke Investment Company, the S&P's 34 percent fall over the last month is the steepest price downturn since 1931 in that time (before 1957, the S&P 500 itself did not exist).