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A depression is a deep and extended slump in total business activity, where both buying and selling drop, causing a decline in production, prices, income and employment. Money becomes limited, many businesses fail and many workers lose their jobs. Unemployed workers have less money to spend, which leads to further drops in sales and demand for products, which leads to decreased production and more employees losing their jobs. This seemingly endless downward spiral can continue until the economy is able to recover, employment and demand for products increases and life may continue normally. A depression of this kind can affect a single industry, a region, a nation or even the entire world. The Great Depression began in 1929 after the Wall Street Crash - shares in the United States were at an all-time high. Investors panicked and sold all of their shares because they knew the prices of their shares could not go any higher – only decrease. This massive sell-up of shares was the catalyst for the Great Depression, which was to cripple the economy of the leading nations of the world for almost a decade. As the American economy withered, so did the economies of the countries it had ties with. Australia was one of the worst to be aff