Grapes of Wrath and Its a Wonderful Life :: Economy Great Depression Essays

Grapes of Wrath and Its a Wonderful LifeFollowing the relatively prosperous era nicknamed the well-to-do Twenties came the Great Depression. Unemployment skyrocketed and good times were hard to be found. In the movie Its a Wonderful Life - we see the transformation from stability to mouth chaos. With World War I freshly over, there was joy and celebration to welcome American boys coming back home. Huge technological improvements and scientific breakthroughs surface the way for larger, more stable and profitable financial markets. Fast and easy money was too be made by playing the booming carry market - many lay men took advantage of these opportunities without having a complete regarding of what exactly they were doing. This inevitably led to the crash that sent America and the realism into the Great Depression.In the movie - we see the first stages of the panic that spread throughout the country. People got scared and ran to the patois to take out their life-savings. What t hey did not understand was that no bank carries all its customers money at the same time. Profits are made off loans (which come from money kept in the bank by customers) with interest rates. This is what George Bailey tries to explain to the people of Bedford Falls, when they come to take their life-savings out of Baileys Building and Loans.However, not everyone was satisfied with George Baileys explanation. They much preferred to have hard currency on them, which led some to turn to Mr. Potter (the stereotypical evil character who represents all that is bad), who offered fifty cents for every dollar. This of course allowed Potter to make bulky profits out of other peoples loss.Georges institution was unable to match Potter, not only because he believed it was unethical, but also because they were not a big and beardown(prenominal) enough institution.Realizing this, Potter tried numerous times during the course of the movie to shut down the Buildings and Loans or take it over - to no avail. It was his aim to mystify a monopolistic market over Bedford Falls that would allow him to charge any rates he wanted and thereby ensure himself a sufficiently large profit. It would also mean the end of a free market in Bedford Falls. A likely byproduct of a monopoly is feudalism, which could have arisen, given half(a) a chance. It was the Bailey bank that always stood in the way of this happening.