(no subject)
The Stockmarket Crash of 1929.
The nineteen twenties were a decade marked by Jazz music and fanciful lifestyles. Many people had become richer as a result of the post-war boom, and were quite happy buying automobiles, refrigerators, other house hold appliances, and radios.
The roaring twenties or the Jazz age was a time of intense stock market speculation. There may never be a time again like the 1920s, where talk about investing dominated almost every conversation. As reported by John Brooks in Once in Golconda, a British Correspondent, after arriving in New York in 1929, reported “You could talk about prohibition, or air conditioning, or music, or horses, but in the end you had to talk about the stock market, and that was when the conversation became serious.” People believed the market could go nowhere but up. For them it was hard to believe that the party would ever come to an end. Despite hard-earned lessons from a Florida real estate bubble in the mid 1920s and even many hectic days (mostly down days) in September of 1929, investors did not hold back. Until Thursday, October 24th - a day that will live in infamy as “Black Thursday."
The days after the crash were marked by several investors committing suicide and most American's being hit incredibly hard economically. The crash of 1929 ended the seemingly infinite prosperity of the 1920s. Millionaires had become poor overnight. Those who believe in the strength of the economic bubble and invested everything they had lost everything they had. Of course, the economy weakened and the unemployment skyrocketed. The Great Depression had begun.
Though it had been not long since the market had been at it's peak, 1929 the top came on September 4th (www.lowrisk.com/crash/1929crash.html) the coming events could have been predicted. The market actually began going downhill after 9-4-29, and suffered the most on 10-24-29. After that it was a steep and steady decline for several months. Most people had expected it to be over with relatively soon and that the economy would bounce back with little more than a ripple in the overall daily life. Even President Hoover had said that the economy was not really in as much danger as everyone thought it was, and that the government wouldn't need to intervene. He was dead wrong of course, and as the months passed, it became clear to the President, and to the rest of America, this was not going to just "go away."
At first President Hoover decided that the government needed to help people as little as possible, saying that the best way for America to rebuild itself wasn't government handouts, that it was through hard labor and earning it. The public did not agree however, and when Hoover ran for president in 1932 he was defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat and Governor of New York. In fact it was not until 1952, twenty years later, that a Republican candidate was elected president of the United States.
F. D. R. ran on a platform promising reform in government handling of the economy and taxes. Once elected, he set up new programs and strategies to help people regain their lost profits. When he came into office, he had quite a problem to resolve, thirteen million Americans were unemployed and nearly every bank in the United States was closed. In his first hundred days he set up several new government agencies and programs aimed at restoring faith in the banking system, promoting agriculture, and set up many new jobs to build infrastructure. The new jobs that he created to build highways and bridges served two roles, they not only gave jobs to thousands of Americans but they also helped expand the road system and railways in the country. One agency in particular that helped was the Tennesee Valley Authority. This agency was designed to help protect homes and farms that were in danger of being lost.
Throughout the decade Roosevelt and many others helped guide the United States back to it's feet. There was no diffinitive day that the depression ended, however many would say that by 1939, the economy had completely gotten back on it's feet, just in time for WWII. The second world war gave the U.S. prosperity, pride, and power. In the end, after the war, the U.S. was the most powerful nation in the world. Then, the Cold War with Russia demanded a booming economy, and with lessons hard learned from the twenties, the U.S. outlived the U.S.S.R., with Russia ending up crashing their own economy by spending so much on weapons to compete with the United States, ending up even worse than the U.S. in the Great Depression. Had it not been for the stockmarket crash of 1929, we may have not ended up knowing how to control the economy for such a strenuous task as competing with another nuclear power in arms.
Though many people ended up losing everything they had, and some never seeing the light of day through the clouds of despair, the United States as a whole survived and prospers still in this day.
The nineteen twenties were a decade marked by Jazz music and fanciful lifestyles. Many people had become richer as a result of the post-war boom, and were quite happy buying automobiles, refrigerators, other house hold appliances, and radios.
The roaring twenties or the Jazz age was a time of intense stock market speculation. There may never be a time again like the 1920s, where talk about investing dominated almost every conversation. As reported by John Brooks in Once in Golconda, a British Correspondent, after arriving in New York in 1929, reported “You could talk about prohibition, or air conditioning, or music, or horses, but in the end you had to talk about the stock market, and that was when the conversation became serious.” People believed the market could go nowhere but up. For them it was hard to believe that the party would ever come to an end. Despite hard-earned lessons from a Florida real estate bubble in the mid 1920s and even many hectic days (mostly down days) in September of 1929, investors did not hold back. Until Thursday, October 24th - a day that will live in infamy as “Black Thursday."
The days after the crash were marked by several investors committing suicide and most American's being hit incredibly hard economically. The crash of 1929 ended the seemingly infinite prosperity of the 1920s. Millionaires had become poor overnight. Those who believe in the strength of the economic bubble and invested everything they had lost everything they had. Of course, the economy weakened and the unemployment skyrocketed. The Great Depression had begun.
Though it had been not long since the market had been at it's peak, 1929 the top came on September 4th (www.lowrisk.com/crash/1929crash.html) the coming events could have been predicted. The market actually began going downhill after 9-4-29, and suffered the most on 10-24-29. After that it was a steep and steady decline for several months. Most people had expected it to be over with relatively soon and that the economy would bounce back with little more than a ripple in the overall daily life. Even President Hoover had said that the economy was not really in as much danger as everyone thought it was, and that the government wouldn't need to intervene. He was dead wrong of course, and as the months passed, it became clear to the President, and to the rest of America, this was not going to just "go away."
At first President Hoover decided that the government needed to help people as little as possible, saying that the best way for America to rebuild itself wasn't government handouts, that it was through hard labor and earning it. The public did not agree however, and when Hoover ran for president in 1932 he was defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat and Governor of New York. In fact it was not until 1952, twenty years later, that a Republican candidate was elected president of the United States.
F. D. R. ran on a platform promising reform in government handling of the economy and taxes. Once elected, he set up new programs and strategies to help people regain their lost profits. When he came into office, he had quite a problem to resolve, thirteen million Americans were unemployed and nearly every bank in the United States was closed. In his first hundred days he set up several new government agencies and programs aimed at restoring faith in the banking system, promoting agriculture, and set up many new jobs to build infrastructure. The new jobs that he created to build highways and bridges served two roles, they not only gave jobs to thousands of Americans but they also helped expand the road system and railways in the country. One agency in particular that helped was the Tennesee Valley Authority. This agency was designed to help protect homes and farms that were in danger of being lost.
Throughout the decade Roosevelt and many others helped guide the United States back to it's feet. There was no diffinitive day that the depression ended, however many would say that by 1939, the economy had completely gotten back on it's feet, just in time for WWII. The second world war gave the U.S. prosperity, pride, and power. In the end, after the war, the U.S. was the most powerful nation in the world. Then, the Cold War with Russia demanded a booming economy, and with lessons hard learned from the twenties, the U.S. outlived the U.S.S.R., with Russia ending up crashing their own economy by spending so much on weapons to compete with the United States, ending up even worse than the U.S. in the Great Depression. Had it not been for the stockmarket crash of 1929, we may have not ended up knowing how to control the economy for such a strenuous task as competing with another nuclear power in arms.
Though many people ended up losing everything they had, and some never seeing the light of day through the clouds of despair, the United States as a whole survived and prospers still in this day.