Great Depression v Modern Recession

The two black and white images are of New York in the 1920's. One is prior to the collapse of  Wall Street in 1929. One is after. After covering this period extensively at A Level, I noticed that many people see the Crash as the catalyst for the depression that savagely ripped through the US' economy during the 1930s. The first image on the top left shows New York during the post WW1 period of prosperity that saw the landscape of the City grow at a rapid rate, this image shows Times Square's iconic advertising being constructed. During this early 1920's period the growth of New York was shockingly fast. The other image shows young men over a gutter 'fishing' for any spare dimes or nickles they can find. This image was undoubtedly taken during the 1930's. I find it bewildering that a city can go from being the largest growing city in the world, as well as very ironically being the new financial capital of the world after overtaking London. To having young unemployed men trying to pull money out of the gutters in such a short space of time. Many historians champion the argument that this recession was always going to happen after such a long post war boom, but no one expected it to be this bad. The Crash was the tipping point in my opinion, the levels of production had been outweighing the consumption for some time prior to the Crash, which meant companies had excess stock, companies that were on the stock exchange, which then led to the frantic selling of stock which caused the Crash.



The image of 2008 bears some similarity to that of the men looking for loose change in the other picture. However this was in 2008, again, after the bankers in the USA had been borrowing too much. The difference in 2008 however was that it affected the entire world as a result of it. Post WW2, the USA became the financial superpower, and still is today. If there was going to be a worldwide recession it was going to start in America, as it could not occur anywhere else in the world and have such a detrimental effect. The same theme runs through both periods. New York went from a financial superhub to being the home of the recession. As a result of this, house prices around the world dropped, unemployment rates soared. We are still feeling the affects today, nearly 8 years on. The effect was felt worldwide in 2008, which was the main difference. Personally my family had invested interest in the recession as we had a villa in Florida being constructed during this period and as a result my family lost over £20,000 after it was abandoned. Note how in the first image the men who are looking for money are of white descent, whereas in the more modern image the young man appears to be black or of that origin. The crash was felt worse by the working class of America, which is predominantly of foreign ethnic backgrounds compared to those in the middle and upper echelons of society, which are predominately white. I was in New York in 2008, during the early stages of the depression and in many locations of the city, you wouldn't have guessed there was a recession occuring. Times Square was still advertising products, Macy's was still as busy as ever and there were still people going to work. The difference was that in the 2008 recession it mainly affected those who were already living on the breadline. During the 1930's everyone was affected in one way or another, no matter where you were in society. Hence why today many are still feeling the effects of 2008, mostly due to the governments lack of assistance. During the 1930's, Roosevelt's government had numerous initiatives to help those affected by the depression. In 2008, there was nothing of the sort.