Causes of the Great Depression

According to this article, the author states that there was not any single dominant reason that brought forth the Great Depression, but rather multiple conflicting circumstances that gave consumers no confidence in the economy. The first claim is that corporations were the causation due to their lack of confidence in investing in infrastructure. I find this theory false because there was no reason for a society who had for the most part during its entire history experienced relative economic stability, to have the foresight to predict the decline of industries that were still creating an enormous amount of GDP. The second stance claims that the Federal Reserve Board was at fault for raising interest rates when they should have lowered them. I do believe that this contributed to the depression, however I do not find it to be the sole cause either. High interest rates only hurt unknowledgable people taking out loans they assumed they could invest with and pay off. When high interest rates compounded by deflating money brought them into poverty, they had no other option but to accept their position. I find the opinion of Temin to be most reasonable in his stance that the depression was caused by a drop in investment and consumer spending. I feel this way because the exaggerated investments for capital during WW1 created a supply of industries that were far outstripping demand. By this I mean that in order for industries to survive, they had to serve many more people. These industries were geared for producing mass amounts of everything, and during times when demand was great, they thrived, but when people were being paid increasingly smaller wages and had no money to spend on anything but necessities, a depression was inevitable. As the industries started to lose money, investments became increasingly insecure, and consumer confidence in the market shriveled up. This was the ultimate cause of the depression and futher more any depression. When there is a lack of consumer confidence, economies tend to destruct internally in a slippery slope of events. The most quick and effective way to reverse the pattern is by an extraneous event such as a war. Despite that, Roosevelt did a remarkable job at creating jobs without an enormous burden to taxpayers through intense reforms, which is very comendable.