Stock Market Crash of 1929
...onomy was going to flop and they’d all be left broke. By noon, however, the panic was over. The countries most powerful financers met later that afternoon to discus ways to slow and ultimately stop this panic and the downslide of the market. They decided to pool resources in and attempt to support the market. By the closing hour on what is now know as “Black Thursday” the market was soft once again. Most companies, which seemed to be down an irreplaceable amount by lunch time, made back a little bit of their money and the day was not a complete disaster. The next few days were slow and uneventful in the big picture of the stock market crisis. There were no significant rises or falls in prices or any significant buying or selling until Monday, October 28. The 28th was another terrible day in terms of the Stock Market. The Volume was huge but not as high as they were the previous Thursday, however the losses were much more severe. Some companies dropped as much as 49 points during the course of the day. The big difference between Monday and “Black Thursday” is that there was no recovery late in the day on Monday. Late in the afternoon of the 28th bankers and stockholders assembled once again, they were in sessions for over two hours. After the meeting they came out apparently optimistic and told the press that the situation “retained hopeful features”. Although these features were not specified or discussed with the press, the statement proved what the investors had been discussing for the past few hours. The most devastating day of the week, and in the history of the Stock Market, was Tuesday, October 29, 1929. Thursday’s panic had wiped out most small market businesses and investors, and Mondays occurrences hurt many of the wealthy investors who either left the stock market completely or threatened to at the next bad sign. This day was the combination of the worst two days of the previous week, the great volume of Thursday and the drop in prices of the day before. With the attitudes of wealthy investors shaky 3,259,800 shares exchanged hands within the first half hour the market was open. That much action usually took place within the first five hours of a normal day. Most companies stock values were half of what they were just a few months earlier. For example, RCA previously was at 110 and by Tuesday it was down to 26. AT&T, which was as high as 310 earlier in the year was down to 204 Tuesday morning. Giant blocks of stock were being dropped on the market Tuesday morning very quickly. Even successful companies like Chrysler, General Electric, IT&T, and Rockefellers’ Standard Oil Company were dropping 50,000 shares at a time on the market. The biggest and most detrimental effect of the great Stock Market crash of ‘29 is what’s known as “The Great Depression”. “The Great Depression” was a time in the United States when unemployment skyrocketed and the economy dropped; this was all a direct effect of the Stock Market crashing. The value of J.P. Morgan dropped from an estimated $118 million in 1929 to an estimated $53 million in 1932. “You have come 60 days too late. The Depression is over.” – Hoover (Klingaman 337). This quote showed how ignorant and unprepared the U.S. government was for the crash and the consequences of it. President Herbert Hoover believed that in the summer of 1930 the depression was over. “It led out of the roaring, raucous, hell-raising, materialistic and individualistic post-war period and pointed toward and era of tremendous social change. People later would speak of ‘before 1929’ or ‘after 1929’ as Noah’s children may have spoken of the days before and after The Flood” – Joe Alex Morris (Sobel 350). The few years following the Stock Market Crash of 1929 proved to be some of the worst years economically in the history of the United States. Every single aspect of the American economy dropped drastically. On July eighth 1932 Stock Market prices hit an all-time low. The country was in a serious depression. Over a quarter of the nations labor force (12.8 million people) were out of work by the spring of 1933. The average weekly wage dropped from $25.03 to $16.73. 1929 will always be known, as the year where becoming rich relatively quickly and easily was no more. Small speculators could no longer dream of easy wealth. The Stock Market Crash of ’29 is the perfect way to split up two totally different decades, the ‘Roaring 20’s’ and the 30’s, the decade of the depression. The 1920’s filled the U.S. with many optimistic, get rich quick speculators, who just wanted to have fun...