The Great Depression Vocab

Credit

An arrangement to buy something now and pay for it later.

Alfred E. Smith

The Democratic candidate who lost the 1928 presidential election to Herbert Hoover.

Dow Jones Industrial Average

A stock market index that measures the stock performance of 30 large companies.

Bull Market

A period when stock prices are rising or expected to rise.

Speculation

Buying risky stocks hoping to make a quick profit.

Buying on Margin

Paying a small percentage of a stock's price and borrowing the rest.

Black Tuesday

October 29, 1929, the day the stock market crashed, triggering the Great Depression.

Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act

A high U.S. import tax passed in 1930 that damaged international trade.

Shantytown

A neighborhood of makeshift shacks built by homeless people during the Depression.

Soup kitchen

A place where free food is offered to needy people.

Bread line

A line of people waiting to receive free food from charities or public agencies.

Dust Bowl

The Great Plains region ruined by drought and dust storms in the 1930s.

Direct relief

Money or food given directly by the government to needy people.

Hoover Dam

A massive dam built on the Colorado River for electricity, flood control, and jobs.

Federal Home Loan Bank Act

A 1932 law that lowered mortgage rates to help homeowners and farmers avoid foreclosure.