Seven decades later, the crash of 1929 is still remembered. A market event that need not have led to economic collapse. This was the year of the great depression and the market crash was the reason.

It began on Thursday, October 24, 1929. 12,894,650 shares changed on the New York Stock Exchange-A record. To think about how this is, go back to March 12, 1928 when there was at that time a record set for trading activity. On that day, a total of 3,875,910 shares were traded. As you can see, Wall Street was a very, very busy place. A big problem not mentioned so far in all this was communication.

There have been many suggested explanations for the crash. but no one can fully account for it. Here are just some:

Stocks were overpriced- Many believed that from the overpriced stocks, the crash brought the chare prices back to normal level. Except, studies show using measures of stock value that prices were not too high.

Massive fraud and Illegal activity- Many believed but evidence revealed that there was pro

Federal Reserve Policy- The federal reserve president, Adolph Miller, tightened the monetary policy and set out to lower the stock prices. Also in the beginning of 1929 the interest rate charged on broker loans rose.

One solution to the problem of the vast majority of the population not having enough money to satisfy all their needs was to let those who wanted goods buy products on credit. The concept of buying now and paying later caught on quickly. By the end of the 1920's 60% of cars and 80% of radios were bought on installment credit. Between 1925 and 1929 the total amount of outstanding installment credit more than doubled from $1.38 billion to around $3 billion. Installment credit allowed to "telescope the future into the present.“ This strategy created artificial demand for products which people could not ordinarily afford. It put off the day of reckoning, but it made the downfall worse when it came. By telescoping the future into the present, when the future arrived, there was little to buy that hadn't already been bought. In addition, people could not longer use their regular wages to purchase whatever items they didn't have

Some topics in this essay:
Adolph Miller, Wall Street, Black October, Market Crash, President Hoover, Stock Exchange-A, York City, Herbert Hoover, Reserve Policy-, installment credit, federal reserve, october 1929, november --, crash october, october 24, stock prices, market crash, stock market, crash 1929,