The Crash of 1929

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Recommended: Causes of stock market crash 1929

The stock market crash of 1929, also known as Black Tuesday, was the largest crash to that date the market fell a total of $2 billion dollars in just 30 minutes (Thomas 73) with over 16 million stocks sold (74). This event single handedly cause thousands of families and businesses to go bankrupt in a matter of minutes, making this one of the most disastrous events of the twentieth century. Over time there were many signs of a crashing economy and many diverse causes. Some of the many causes of Black Tuesday are Giving loans to people who couldn’t pay the loans off, that the federal reserve couldn't control the huge market, and that the market grew too large too fast.
A group of investors stood together one of them named John Jacob Raskob and many more investors were selling short (Klingaman 32). He decides that he can make some money and seem like more of a philanthropic person by getting people rich, but first he had to convince them that stock prices would rise indefinitely (31). One thing Raskob did to convince people, was he released in a press interview that using Raskob as a broker; you could put 15 dollars into a stock with him over 40 years you could multiply your money by almost 27 times (33). Raskob famously says “I have all the money I want and now I want to help a lot of other people make some” decides to make a business in which you only have to pay a down payment and 15 dollars a month and people took advantage of this (32). Although the average wage was only 25 a week, so for a family it is very difficult to pay 15 dollars every month (33). This then causes people to sell stock which causes a drop in the market. When Raskob saw this happening, he immediately liquidated his stocks, and so did many other peop...

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...e the causes, but only a few of the causes have been discovered, and they are that the stock market got too large too fast, the Federal reserve made bad choices, and a select group of businessmen trusted people to take money who could not pay the money back.

Works Cited

Allen, Frederick Lewis. “Fruitless Efforts of the Federal Reserve Board.” The Crash of 1929. ed., Gerdes, Louise I. San Diego: Greenhaven Press. 42-46
Hall, Thomas E. and J. David Ferguson. “The 1920’s: A New Era of Prosperities.” The Crash of 1929. ed., Gerdes, Louise I. San Diego: Greenhaven Press. 22-28
Klingaman, Wiliam K., “Everybody Ought to be Rich.” The Crash of 1929. ed., Gerdes, Louise I. San Diego: Greenhaven Press. 28-41
Thomas, Gordon and Max Morgan-Witts. “October 29,1929: The Day the Bubble Burst.” The Crash of 1929. ed., Gerdes, Louise I. San Diego: Greenhaven Press. 66-77

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