The late 1920’s were a decade of economic boom. New houses and apartments were created, and the nation’s capital expanded. At the beginning of 1929, the unemployment rate was at a low 3.2 percent. But as that eventful year unfolded, increasing signs of economic weakness began to appear. Unemployment went up to 25 percent and the Real Gross Development Product (GDP) declined at 29 percent. (Macroeconomics, pg 376)

Prior to the stock market crash, the nation was relishing in a state of jubilation. Confidence levels were elevated and the stock market was up. Everybody seemed to be making a fortune by speculating in the stock market. Between August and S

RCA at 110 went all the way down to 26…” (Year of The Great Depression, pg xiii)

Early on the morning of Tuesday October 29, 1929 the corners of Wall Street were swamped with thousands of excited thrill-seekers who had come to witness anticipated stock market destruction. All around, feelings of tension and fear filled the air inside the exchange, while waiting for the opening gong to ring at 10 o’clock. A week earlier the stock market had suffered the most disastrous decline in its history, and the staggering plunge of prices on the following Monday afternoon had only increased the prevailing sense of panic. In brokers’ rooms across the country investors, fidgeting nervously as they coughed and shifted their feet, stared in hypnotic fascination at the silent stock ticker, in wait for a verdict of either survival or more likely utter ruin.

US Steel skidded down from 190…180…170…and kept falling

From the moment trading began, everyone was at full fury. Within the first thirty minutes of business, immense blacks of stock, 50,000 shares at a time of big companies such as Chrysler, General Electric, and Standard Oil, were dumped on the market by wealthy individuals at prices that shocked onlookers. More than 8 million shares of stock had been sold, breaking all previous records of trading.

Brokers lost their nerve and sold out their customers without reason, lending further momentum to the downward spiral. Meanwhile, others lost their minds; spectators watched in silent horror as one trader ran screaming like a lunatic from the floor of the exchange. As fifteen billion worth of stock values had vanished into thin air, wiping out the life savings of investors across the nation, the human toll began to mount. Businessmen, whose compan

Some topics in this essay:
THEM” Throughout, Wall Street, Standard Oil, August September, , Le Sueur, Money Mischief, Product GDP, stock market, stock market crash, market crash, depression pg, depression 1930’s, buying power, wall street, basic weaknesses, money term, le sueur, response question,