The Great Depression Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Great Depression - Research Paper Example It began in the U.S but quickly spread to the entire world. It hit hard on major cities, especially those dependent on heavy industry. It took a toll on prices, tax revenue, personal income and profits. International trade shrunk by over 50% to 75%. Unemployment in the U.S increased to over 25%, while GDP fell by over 36%. Consumption declined and so did the industrial output. Additionally, it had political ramifications. It led to the election of President Roosevelt in U.S and the rise of Hitler’s Nazi regime in Germany. Historians argue that it was one of the major causes of the World War II. Not even Roosevelt’s New Deal could pull the U.S economy out of the depression. Countries began to recover in the mid 1930s. Ironically, the beginning of World War II marked the end of the Great depression. Causes Recessions in a business cycle are normal, and a product of balances between demand and supply. What turned normal events into a recession has been a subject of widespr ead debate. A combination of domestic and international factors was culpable for the great depression: structural weaknesses and individual events. a) Boom to Bust The period following World War I is widely regarded as an era of prosperity for the American people. U.S.A had just emerged as a leading superpower. Business started thriving and the quality of life improved dramatically. There were post war reconstructions and low interest rates which ignited the boom. President Coolidge in his state of the nation address in 1929 noted that the nation had never witnessed better prospects than it did then. Automobiles were growing cheaper and more popular. Stock prices were on an upward trend. In fact, the Dow Jones Industrial Average quadrupled between 1924 and 1927. The market experienced the biggest bullish run ever. Many people thought that this was a permanent phenomenon. Many investors were lured into the stock market, some investing on margin using loans. According to Suddah (2008) , out of every 5 dollars loaned by banks, 2 were spent to buy stock. In essence, there was a huge supply of money, which primarily led to speculative stock prices. Besides stock markets, there was a boom in the real estate sector. There was a surge in the real estate sector particularly because of the low market interest rates. Why did the boom to bust contribute to the depression? Boom and bust is a normal feature of a capitalist economy. It was bound to end. It had been a period excessively easy monetary policy. There was a general absence of proper regulation in the monetary sector. It led to excessive speculation, where investors speculated that the share price would keep the upward trend. As a result of increased demand, the share prices became artificially higher: and did not reflect their real value. The speculative euphoria and the boom psychology created underlying weaknesses and imbalances within the economy. Consequently, the nation was not able to deal with the downward spiral in the economy. b) Stock Market Crash of 1929 The stock market crash is widely regarded as the major cause of the depression. The artificial prices of stocks were finally destroyed. What happened was that when the bull market came to an end, share prices began to fall as from September 3 1929. Speculators began sensing loses to their savings and even homes. On the Black Thursday, there were many people trying to offload their shares. That increased the supply while very few investors were willing to buy.

Pharmaceutical companies and the supply of essential drugs to least Assignment

Pharmaceutical companies and the supply of essential drugs to least developed countries (LDCs) - Assignment Example of HIV/AIDS is used as an example for showing the level at which the firm is willing to promote ethics and to ignore the relevant effects on its profitability. The review of the firm’s practices in supporting the patients of HIV in South Africa has revealed the following facts: the firm has taken initiatives for promoting public health, or, else, public good, in the specific regions. However, the performance of the business in fully promoting CSR can be doubted, a view that it can be verified by the allegations that the firm has faced in the past for violating ethics. On the other hand, the measures that the firm took for supporting people in poor countries cannot be ignored. Thus, it could be concluded that the firm is willing to promote CSR but it could not achieve such target without making alterations in its CSR, as suggested below. The expansion of HIV/AIDS in South Africa is quite rapid. In the map in Figure 1 (Appendices) the infection from HIV globally is presented; through this map it is made clear that South Africa holds the first place, along with other African countries of the mid-Africa region, in regard to the infection from HIV. In South Africa the expansion of HIV seems to be related mostly to young girls who become victims of sexual exploitation by old men (BBC News 2013). The graph in Figure 2 (Appendices) presents the percentage of girls as compared to boys affected from HIV in Kenya; the difference between the two categories is clear. According to a report published in March of 2013 a percentage of about ‘25% school-girls in South Africa’ (BBC News 2013, par.1) has been infected by HIV/AIDS after suffering a sexual assault. The relevant research refers to young girls up to 14 years. In fact, in South Africa women are more exposed to the risk of HIV/AIDS than men: women in South Afri ca are infected by HIV/ AIDS at a percentage of 23.2% while for men the relevant percentage is significantly lower, about 18.8% (BBC News 2014, par.4). Today,