1929 Wall Street Crash: The Great Depression

1929 Wall Street Crash Great Depression Research Report

The Roaring Twenties is a commonly used term to describe the 1920's United States, portraying the 1920's distinctive cultural characteristics primarily in New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles among many other major metropolitan centers of the era as well as the period of sustained economic expansion. The 1920's economic recovery was significant considering the aftermath of the First World War, which placed an enormous financial burden on the United States economy. The Harlem Renaissance, a socio-political movement which emerged in urban African - American communities which portrayed urban black life and led to the blossoming of African - American music, most specifically the jazz

While major American cities and metropolitan areas prospered throughout the decade, the immense emigration from rural to urban areas put strain on the United States agriculture industry, eventually being a key contributing factor to the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Despite the instability and risk of speculation, the practice of engaging in risky financial transactions in an attempt to profit from fluctuations in the market value of a tradable good such as a financial asset, many Americans believed that the stock market would continue to increase in value indefinitely. There were critical warnings of excessive speculation including the Federal Reserve of the United States warning of excessive speculation in early 1929. The resulting affect of the warning on the behalf of the Federal Reserve was panic leading to a 20% slide in overall market value. Two days after the crash in March of 1929, banker Charles E. Mitchell expressed that National City Bank would provide $25 million in credit to stop the market from falling any further. This infusion of credit into the market brought a temporary halt to the crisis with the overall decrease in market value moving from 20% to 8%. History has proven that this attempt to temporarily boost the stock market in an attempt to avoid a potentially devastating market crash was

Many prominent economic figures such as Irving Fisher expressed optimism about the bull market during the peak of the Dow Jones Industrial Average's value. The economic gains and optimism of what seemed like was an ever climbing market were shake on September 18th of 1929 , when prices on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) fell for multiple days after a publicized warning from Roger Babson proclaimed that "a crash was coming". This initial scare which affected various markets was called the "Babson Break" in the press. October 24th of 1929 also known as Black Tuesday marked the most significant single event leading up to and related to the Stock Market Crash of 1929. On this day, the market lost 11 percent of its value during the market's opening hours with an immense volume of trades being made during the time. As a response to the decline in market value by 11% on October 24th of 1929 , several prominent Wall Street bankers et to find a solution to the resulting panic and chaos on the trading floor. Richard Whitney, vice president of the Exchange, was elected to act on their behalf. Whitney placed a bid to acquire a large portion of hares in US Steel at an inflated price, well above the actual market value. In addition, Whitney placed similar bids on other "blue chip"