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Notes -
It's been a long time since my economics and history courses, but I don't think the United States was owed much if anything by Germany. To the extent that anything in 1919 was causitive [and, to be fair, I don't think most things are monocausal] I think it would have been by American investments in Germany and Europe failing to yield expected returns. Germany had a string of economic problems – hyperinflation, the occupation of the Ruhr – related to its reparations debts, and from what I understand these not only negatively impacted Germany but Europe as a whole. Now, to your question, I don't know what degree of American stock market speculation was actually in Europe, so possibly my cool Keynes myth is bunk, but given that the European markets in the 1930s were sensitive to the American stock market, I imagine the reverse was true as well. But do take the theory with a grain of salt, I gather that the True Causes of the Great Depression are still a cause for debate among actual economists.
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