Read each paragraph and answer the questions that follow by choosing the letter of the correct response.
(1) The economic weakness that underlay the Great Depression1 had several interrelated causes. (2) The first cause was declining demand. (3) Coal, railroads, textiles, and some other industries were in distress long before 1929, but the major growth industries—automobiles, construction, and mechanized agriculture—had been able to expand as long as consumers bought their products. (4) Frenzied expansion, however, could not continue unabated. (5) When demand leveled off, owners could not accumulate funds to build new plants and hire new workers. (6) Instead, unsold inventories stacked up in warehouses, and laborers were laid off. (7) A second cause was under consumption, which also resulted from maldistribution of income. (8) For example, as the rich grew richer, middle- and lower-income Americans made only modest gains. (9) Though average per capita2 disposable income rose about 9 percent between 1920 and 1929, the income of the wealthiest 1 percent rose 75 percent, accounting for most of the increase. (10) Much of this increase was put into stock market investments instead of being spent on consumer goods. (11) The third cause was that American businesses were overloaded with debt. (12) In 1929 the top 200 nonfinancial corporations controlled 49 percent of corporate wealth. (13) Many corporations built pyramidlike empires supported by shady, though legal, manipulation of assets and weakly supported liabilities. (14) Finally, the nation’s banking system was on precarious3 footing. (15) For example, when one part of the edifice4 collapsed, the entire structure crumbled.
The topic of this paragraph is
a. causes of the Great Depression.
b. declining demand.
c. frenzied expansion.
d. banking.
a. causes of the Great Depression.
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