Main Causes of the Great Depression Free Essay Example, 3000 words

The 1920s was a decade of economic prosperity for the country. In 1923, the aggregate income of the country totaled $74.3 billion. This number expanded by 17 percent to $89 billion by the end of 1929. The prosperity generated during this decade remained chiefly in the pockets of those whose incomes were in the top one-tenth of one percent of the population. According to a study done by the Brookings Institute, in 1929 the top 0.1 percent of Americans had a combined income equal to the bottom 42 percent (McElvaine, 1984 p. 38). At the time of the market crash, four-fifths of the nation s citizens had no savings account but the highest earners, the 0.1 percent, had more than one-third of all savings (McElvaine, 1984 p. 38). To illustrate this discrepancy of wealth, automobile industrialist Henry Ford serves as a good example. Ford s reported annual income was in excess of $14 million (Baughman, 1996) when the average annual income for a worker was $750. In today s money, Ford s annua l salary would exceed $350 million (Hoffman, 1992 p. 155). The economic divide between rich and poor grew during the 1920s mainly because the manufacturing output (production) rose by more than a third during this decade. We will write a custom essay sample on Main Causes of the Great Depression or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/page The nation s economy was weakened by an over-supply of products. All economies are stimulated by consumer spending. The affluent bank the greatest proportion of their income but the lower earners must spend all of their income on basic necessities such as food, clothes, housing, and services. When a disproportionate part of the country s wealth is in the pockets of the wealthy, an insufficient number of dollars are being circulated throughout every stage of commerce.

Essay about Wittig Reaction Synthesis of Trans-Stilbene

The purpose of this experiment was to perform a wittig reaction, the horner-emmons wittig specifically, reacting an aldehyde with an ylide to make an alkene. This particular variation of the wittig reaction has several advantages: It gives only the trans product; it uses a much milder base that is easier to handle; and it gives a water soluble byproduct which is easy to separate from the product. The reason that these advantages occur is a change in the structure of the ylide. Instead of a tripheylphosphine ylide, we use a diethylphosphonate ylide. The protons are much more acidic and its byproduct is negatively charged. The reason why we chose to create trans-stilbene is become of its many practical applications. Stilbene exists as†¦show more content†¦This modification is similar to a standard Wittig reaction in that the first step, which has already been done for you, is the reaction of a trialkyl phosphite with a suitable alkyl halide as shown below in two steps: In the first step the trialkyl phosphate acts as a nucleophile and, in a typical Sn2 reaction, forms a phosphonium salt. The salt is unstable and a halide ion X displaces R in the Sn2 manner to form a dialkylphosphonate. It is the phosphonate that, in the presence of base, is converted to a Wittig-like reagent. Normally the Wittig reagent is an ylid and neutral, but the modified Wittig is analogous to the carbanion of an aldol intermediate. Due to its resonance forms, the phosphonate anion is able to attack the carbonyl much like acarbanion in an aldol reaction to give an oxyanion species. This is where the analogy with the aldol reaction fails. The oxyanion undergoes a reaction analogous to nucleophilic substitution at an unsaturated center to form the olefin, normally as the E isomer, and a water soluble phosphonate anion. In this particular experiment, diethyl benzylphosphonate is used with benzaldehyde as the carbonyl component. Since phase transfer conditions are used, we can u se a weaker base, the hydroxide ion. The reactivity o the anion formed is very high, resulting in excellent yields of trans-stilbene. The trans form of Stilbene is more favored than the sterically hindered cis form. AlthoughShow MoreRelatedPreparation Of The ( 2 Nitrophenyl ) Acrylate Using The Wittig Reaction1287 Words   |  6 Pages3-(2-Nitrophenyl)acrylate Utilizing the Wittig Reaction Introduction: The Wittig reaction, named after Georg Wittig, produces an alkene from an aldehyde or ketone reacting with a phosphonium ylide (a Wittig reagent). The Wittig reaction is typically stereoselective, which makes the Wittig reagents more difficult to work with but use of the Wittig with different allyl substituents prove to make the Wittig more versatile which can lead to the synthesis of a wide range of alkenes, styrenes, stilbenes, and 1,3-dienes which

Short story The Musician Free Essays

It was a cold winter’s day, the snow lay thick on the ground but surrounding the house there were no footsteps left from visitors bringing packages on the cold icy morning. We were the only visitors calling on this freezing day.I’d arrived at the house many times before, even dreamt about it as a smaller child, it was the kind you read about in books. We will write a custom essay sample on Short story: The Musician or any similar topic only for you Order Now Well I say big it was bigger than ours but then most houses in the county were. It was white and wooden with a broken swing on the porch, maybe a little run down but it wasn’t anything that a few hours of hard grafting wouldn’t fix. Well the drains they leaked too but I could live with that, as in the summer when I came walking down here with my friends I could smell daisies and all kinds of flowers growing in the fields. We always peeped through the window at the man inside. He interested us so much,not that we ever saw him but all the stories that we’d heard about him from our parents about the myths of his life before telling us we shouldn’t come and torture that nice old man, well what were we to do? We were just curious. We approached the house as we did each weekend with a bag of stones†¦.. Inside the house sits a musician trying desperately to write a decent song a song that’s listenable to. He waits in his rocking chair swaying to and fro, pipe in one hand pen in the other, desperately searching for the right words to touch the paper. As he begins he names his song â€Å"The Song of The World† Why? I don’t know; maybe he thought it would bring hope to his sad lonely life or perhaps he could think of nothing better. The man lives alone. He dreams of days gone by and wishes that he could relive those moments of his youth. Nobody visits. Nobody calls. The grey trees outside growl a lonely kind of call to the man as if trying to tempt him outside so they can warn him of something. The floorboards below him creak as if there is another presence in the house. There isn’t of course. There never is. He used to have so much, wife, children but now he has little more than a hovel. He visits the graveyard every day and has done since the accident. Many myths have built up around him in the town. Well that’s just what our town is like; every ones business is your own. No one ever wanted to help him but still he continues to create beautiful music for everybody. How do I know so much about him? Well I am the first visitor he’s had for twenty years. He doesn’t speak much but when he does he seems upset as if he is recalling the past, the past no one has cared about for what seem like an eternity. The first smile I have seen from him is after he’s succeeded with the first line and as he continues his smile grows. The phone continues to lie dormant. No relatives call, No friends from days gone by give him a second thought, perhaps it’s easier to forget he exists. He moves his pipe, puts down his pen. Slowly he stands the smile no longer on his face. He begins to weep. I am not sure what to do till he finishes crying. He describes how people used to want to listen to his music though now they prefer to make up stories and throw things at his home. Suddenly I was wrapped with guilt; it had only been a bit of harmless fun I decided I was going to help the man whom I had tormented for so long. Each day during my summer holidays I would take fresh pies from my mother to him and I would listen to his stories. I would not know how much was real and how much was make-believe but I didn’t really care we became best of friends and now he was happier he found it easier to write his songs again. One day I stole his songs and took them to a recording company. I came running back eager to tell him I’d got him a recording contract. Apparently I had broken his trust. That was the last I ever saw of him. He felt heed sooner be as he was. Even so, after that summer we never threw things at his house again. How to cite Short story: The Musician, Papers