You know, when I study the history of financial crises, I am always amazed at the scale of the Great Depression. It’s not just a stock market crash — it’s a whole chain of events that turned the global economy upside down.

It all started with the stock market crash in October 1929. People called it Black Tuesday. Imagine: years of speculation, artificially inflated prices, borrowed funds everywhere. And then trust evaporated. Stocks plummeted in free fall. Millions of Americans lost everything they had saved. One wave — and savings turned into nothing.

But that was only the beginning. After the crash, bank panics began. People withdrew deposits en masse, banks failed one after another. Without insurance, without regulation — just complete chaos. Bank closures meant losing credit lines for the entire economy. Production declined, unemployment rose. In some countries, it reached 25 percent. A quarter of the workforce unemployed.

The Great Depression quickly spread beyond the US. Europe, already weakened after World War I, took a hit. Export markets collapsed. Governments introduced protectionist tariffs, trying to shield their economies. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 in America provoked retaliatory measures from other countries. The result? Global trade plunged into a abyss.

Consumption collapsed. People lost jobs, cut expenses. Businesses saw demand fall, closed down. This created a vicious circle — the more unemployment, the less consumption, the more bankruptcies. Thousands of companies went bankrupt. Small shops, large industrial giants — all fell.

The social consequences were enormous. Homeless people on the streets, free soup kitchens, food queues in cities. Political instability, extremist movements, regime changes. The economic crisis sparked social upheaval.

The way out of the Great Depression was long. Franklin D. Roosevelt launched the New Deal in the US — large-scale aid programs, public works, new regulatory agencies to oversee banks and markets. Many countries introduced unemployment insurance, pension systems, social guarantees. But the real push came from World War II — military production, investments in industry, new jobs.

The most interesting thing is that the Great Depression taught the world something important. After this crisis, deposit insurance, serious securities regulation, social safety nets appeared. Governments took on more responsibility for economic stability. It was a turning point in how financial systems are managed.

The history of the Great Depression reminds us how fragile the global economy can be. Even now, more than 90 years later, the lessons from that time influence the decisions of leaders and experts. Crises repeat, but we learn from past mistakes — at least, we try.