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N0KFQ > TODAY 29.10.12 20:11l 52 Lines 2299 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 30473_KB0WSA
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Oct 29
Path: IZ3LSV<IW0QNL<IK6ZDE<VE2PKT<N4JOA<N9PMO<KC5CNT<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 121029/1837Z 30473@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.53
...
Oct 29, 1929:
Stock market crashes
Black Tuesday hits Wall Street as investors trade 16,410,030
shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Billions
of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors, and
stock tickers ran hours behind because the machinery could not
handle the tremendous volume of trading. In the aftermath of
Black Tuesday, America and the rest of the industrialized world
spiraled downward into the Great Depression.
During the 1920s, the U.S. stock market underwent rapid
expansion, reaching its peak in August 1929, a period of wild
speculation. By then, production had already declined and
unemployment had risen, leaving stocks in great excess of their
real value. Among the other causes of the eventual market
collapse were low wages, the proliferation of debt, a weak
agriculture, and an excess of large bank loans that could not be
liquidated.
Stock prices began to decline in September and early October
1929, and on October 18 the fall began. Panic set in, and on
October 24_Black Thursday_a record 12,894,650 shares were traded.
Investment companies and leading bankers attempted to stabilize
the market by buying up great blocks of stock, producing a
moderate rally on Friday. On Monday, however, the storm broke
anew, and the market went into free fall. Black Monday was
followed by Black Tuesday, in which stock prices collapsed
completely.
After October 29, 1929, stock prices had nowhere to go but up, so
there was considerable recovery during succeeding weeks. Overall,
however, prices continued to drop as the United States slumped
into the Great Depression, and by 1932 stocks were worth only
about 20 percent of their value in the summer of 1929. The stock
market crash of 1929 was not the sole cause of the Great
Depression, but it did act to accelerate the global economic
collapse of which it was also a symptom. By 1933, nearly half of
America's banks had failed, and unemployment was approaching 15
million people, or 30 percent of the workforce. It would take
World War II, and the massive level of armaments production taken
on by the United States, to finally bring the country out of the
Depression after a decade of suffering.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: n0kfq@winlink.org
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