There is no purpose in life for me any more. Without the store to provide an income for me, my family will starve. Father, I am sorry that I have gotten you into this mess. I should have never borrowed money from you to start the store, and it is because of me that you have no money. I persuaded you to buy stocks, which you lost when the market fell. I am dearly sorry about Andrew, who I, in my rage over the bankruptcy, have killed. Do not mourn me, for I was only a burden on society. I wish good luck to everyone in these horrible times.

John Sharp (Based on true actions of family members)

This suicide is an example of what many people experienced after Black Thursday. Following a steady stock market increase in the 1920’s, on October 24th (Black Thursday) the stock market crashed and almost 13 million shares were sold (Beil 51). This progressing bear market, a stock market trend of falling prices (Beil 56), caused many people to lose their money and their livelihoods. The gross national product declined by over half from the 1929 figure of $130,828,000,000 to $55,760,000,000 in 1933 (“Great Depression” par 1). Money invested in the stock market plummeted

Due to the chaos experienced within the banking community, on March 6, 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt closed all banks for at least three days and passed the Emergency Banking Act. This act gave the government the chance to inspect the health of banks. During this banking holiday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was formed to insure deposits up to $5,000 (Gupta par. 2-3). In 1929 alone, out of 24,633 banks, at least 659 had failed or had been closed temporarily (Schenk par. 13). Between 1930 and 1933, 9,000 banks failed, taking with them $7 billion in depositors’ assets (Social Security Online History Page par. 3). As the years after Black Thursday progressed, “business failures increased rapidly among banks, factories and stores, and unemployment soared” (Sobel 340).

Just after the crash, swarms of people rushed to their banks to withdraw the only money they had left. These rushes were called bank runs. “Many banks lacked sufficient reserves to stay in business and became no more than convenient billboards” (Social Security Online History Page par. 3). Before the stock market fell, many banks had lent money to people who were unable to repay them (Sobel 340). At the same time, according to the Social Security Online History Page, “many of the smaller banks had lent large portions of their assets to stock market speculations and were put out of business overnight” (par. 3).

Those lucky persons who did manage to keep their jobs or found new ones were usually faced with salary cuts. “In 1932, wage cuts averaged about18%” (Sobel 340). Also, according to Sobel, “Many people, including college grad

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