Crowd gathering on Wall Street.

The Wall Street Crash of 1929 , also known as the Crash of ’29, was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, taking into consideration the full scope and longevity of its fallout. Three phrases—Black Thursday, Black Monday, and Black Tuesday—are used to describe this collapse of stock values. All three are appropriate, for the crash was not a one-day affair. The initial crash occurred on Black Thursday (October 24, 1929), but it was the catastrophic downturn of Black Monday and Tuesday (October 28 and October 29, 1929) that precipitated widespread panic and the onset of unprecedented and long-lasting consequences for the United States. The collapse continued for a month. Economists and historians disagree as to what role the crash played in subsequent economic, social, and political events. The crash in America came near the beginning of the Great Depression, a period of economic decline in the industrialized nations, and led to the institution of landmark financial reforms and new trading regulations. At the time of the crash, New York City had grown to be a major metropolis, and its Wall Street district was one of the world's leading financial centers. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was the largest stock market in the world. The Roaring Twenties was a time of prosperity and excess in the city, and, despite warnings against speculation, many believed that the market could sustain high price levels. Shortly before the crash, Irving Fisher famously proclaimed, "Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."^[1] The euphoria and financial gains of the great bull market were shattered on Black Thursday, when share prices on the NYSE collapsed. Stock prices fell on that day and they continued to fall, at an unprecedented rate, for a full month. Image File history File links Crowd_outside_nyse. ... Image File history File links Crowd_outside_nyse. ... A stock market crash is a sudden dramatic decline of stock prices across a significant cross-section of a stock market. ... Motto: (traditional) In God We Trust (official, 1956–present) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington, D.C. Largest city New York City Official language(s) None at the federal level; English de facto Government Federal Republic  - President George W. Bush (R)  - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence - Declared - Recognized... Black Thursday can mean February 6, 1851, when fires severely burnt Victoria, Australia and reports of the temperature reaching 117°F (or 47°C) in the capital of Melbourne, but since the Bureau of Meteorology had not been established, this has never been verified or considered official. ... Black Monday may refer to: Black Monday, Dublin, 1209 – when a group of 500 recently arrived settlers from Bristol were massacred by warriors of the Gaelic OByrne clan. ... Black Tuesday refers to a number of different things: The Wall Street Crash of 1929. ... is the 297th day of the year (298th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 301st day of the year (302nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 302nd day of the year (303rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see The Great Depression (disambiguation). ... World map indicating Human Development Index (as of 2004). ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... For other uses, see Metropolis (disambiguation). ... Elaborate marble facade of NYSE as seen from the intersection of Broad and Wall Streets For other uses, see Wall Street (disambiguation). ... The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), nicknamed the Big Board, is a New York City-based stock exchange. ... For the film, see The Roaring Twenties. ... Irving Fisher, 1927. ... A bull market is a prolonged period of time when prices are rising in a financial market faster than their historical average. ... In economics and financial theory, analysts use random walk techniques to model behavior of asset prices, in particular share prices on stock markets, currency exchange rates and commodity prices. ...

In the days leading up to Black Thursday, the market was severely unstable. Periods of selling and high volumes of trading were interspersed with brief periods of rising prices and recovery. Economist and author Jude Wanniski later correlated these swings with the prospects for passage of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which was then being debated in Congress^[2]. After the crash, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) recovered early in 1930, only to reverse again, reaching a low point of the great bear market in 1932. The Dow did not return to pre-1929 levels until late 1954,^[3] and was lower at its July 8, 1932 level than it had been since the 1800s.^[4] The Bombay Stock Exchange in India. ... It has been suggested that Two Santa Claus Theory be merged into this article or section. ... Representative W.C. Hawley, and Senator Reed Smoot shake hands in agreement on new tariff bill The Hawley-Smoot Tariff (or Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act)[1] was signed into law on June 17, 1930, and raised U.S. tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods to record levels, and, in... Linear graph of the DJIA from 1901 until today Logarithmic graph of the DJIA from 1901 until today The Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DJI, also called the DJIA, Dow 30, or informally the Dow Jones or The Dow) is one of several stock market indices created by nineteenth-century... In investing, financial markets are commonly believed to have market trends[1] that can be classified as primary trends, secondary trends (short-term), and secular trends (long-term). ... is the 189th day of the year (190th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1932 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Timeline

The trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange just after the crash of 1929.

After an amazing five-year run when the world saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) increase in value fivefold, prices peaked at 381.17 on September 3, 1929. The market then fell sharply for a month, losing 17% of its value on the initial leg down. Prices then recovered more than half of the losses over the next week, only to turn back down immediately afterwards. The decline then accelerated into the so-called "Black Thursday", October 24, 1929. A record number of 12.9 million shares were traded on that day. cake and sprinkles At 1 p.m. on Friday, October 25, several leading Wall Street bankers met to find a solution to the panic and chaos on the trading floor. The meeting included Thomas W. Lamont, acting head of Morgan Bank; Albert Wiggin, head of the Chase National Bank; and Charles E. Mitchell, president of the National City Bank. They chose Richard Whitney, vice president of the Exchange, to act on their behalf. With the bankers' financial resources behind him, Whitney placed a bid to purchase a large block of shares in U.S. Steel at a price well above the current market. As amazed traders watched, Whitney then placed similar bids on other "blue chip" stocks. This tactic was similar to a tactic that ended the Panic of 1907, and succeeded in halting the slide that day. In this case, however, the respite was only temporary. Image File history File links 1930-67B.gif Summary 1930-67B: The trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange just after the crash of 1929. ... Image File history File links 1930-67B.gif Summary 1930-67B: The trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange just after the crash of 1929. ... Linear graph of the DJIA from 1901 until today Logarithmic graph of the DJIA from 1901 until today The Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DJI, also called the DJIA, Dow 30, or informally the Dow Jones or The Dow) is one of several stock market indices created by nineteenth-century... is the 246th day of the year (247th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 297th day of the year (298th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 298th day of the year (299th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Elaborate marble facade of NYSE as seen from the intersection of Broad and Wall Streets For other uses, see Wall Street (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Bank (disambiguation). ... Thomas William Lamont (1870-1948) was a American banker. ... JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) is one of the oldest financial services firms in the world. ... Albert Henry Wiggin, Time magazine cover August 24, 1931 Albert Henry Wiggin (February 21, 1868–May 21, 1951) was an American banker. ... The Chase Manhattan Bank, now part of JPMorgan Chase, was formed by the merger of the Chase National Bank and the Bank of the Manhattan Company in 1955. ... Charles Edwin Mitchell was elected president of National City Bank (now Citibank) in 1921 and in 1929 was made chairman, a position he held until 1933, when he was arrested and indicted for tax evasion by then Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Dewey. ... Citibank is a major international bank, founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York. ... Richard Whitney (August 1, 1888 - December 5, 1974), was an American financier, president of the New York Stock Exchange 1930-1935, and a convicted embezzler. ... The United States Steel Corporation (NYSE: X) is an integrated steel producer with major production operations in the United States and Central Europe. ... A blue chip stock is the stock of a well-established company having stable earnings and no extensive liabilities. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Over the weekend, the events were covered by the newspapers across the United States. On Monday, October 28, more investors decided to get out of the market, and the slide continued with a record loss in the Dow for the day of 13%. The next day, "Black Tuesday", October 29, 1929, 16.4 million shares were traded, a number that broke the record set five days earlier and that was not exceeded until 1969. Author Richard M. Salsman wrote that on October 29—amid rumors that U.S. President Herbert Hoover would not veto the pending Hawley-Smoot Tariff bill—stock prices crashed even further."^[5] William C. Durant joined with members of the Rockefeller family and other financial giants to buy large quantities of stocks in order to demonstrate to the public their confidence in the market, but their efforts failed to stop the slide. The DJIA lost another 12% that day. The ticker did not stop running until about 7:45 that evening. The market lost $14 billion in value that day, bringing the loss for the week to $30 billion, ten times more than the annual budget of the federal government, far more than the U.S. had spent in all of World War I.^[6] is the 301st day of the year (302nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 302nd day of the year (303rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Richard Salsman is an an American economist and lecturer. ... is the 302nd day of the year (303rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the pop band, see Presidents of the United States of America. ... Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964), the thirty-first President of the United States (1929–1933), was a world-famous mining engineer and humanitarian administrator. ... The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act raised US tariffs on over 20,000 dutiable items to record levels, and, in the opinion of many economists, protracted the Great Depression. ... William Crapo Durant (December 8, 1861-March 18, 1947) was a leading pioneer of the United States automobile industry, creating the system of multi-brand holding companies with different lines of cars. ... The Rockefeller family, the family of John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937) (Senior) and his brother William Rockefeller (1841-1922), is an American industrial, banking, philanthropic, and political family of German American origin that made the worlds largest private fortune in the oil business during the late 19th and early... The board and equipment for Stock Ticker Stock Ticker is a now out of print board game that was popular upon its release and is still played today. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ...

An interim bottom occurred on November 13, with the Dow closing at 198.6 that day. The market recovered for several months from that point, with the Dow reaching a secondary peak at 294.0 in April 1930. The market embarked on a steady slide in April 1931 that did not end until 1932 when the Dow closed at 41.22 on July 8, concluding a shattering 89% decline from the peak. This was the lowest the stock market had been since the 19th century.^[7] is the 317th day of the year (318th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 189th day of the year (190th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Salsman observed that "As late as April 1942, U.S. stock prices were still 75% below their 1929 peak and would not revisit that level until November 1954—almost a quarter of a century later."^[5]

Economic fundamentals

Dow Jones Industrial, 1928-1930

The crash followed a speculative boom that had taken hold in the late 1920s, which had led hundreds of thousands of Americans to invest heavily in the stock market, a significant number even borrowing money to buy more stock. By August 1929, brokers were routinely lending small investors more than 2/3 of the face value of the stocks they were buying. Over $8.5 billion was out on loan, more than the entire amount of currency circulating in the U.S.^[8] The rising share prices encouraged more people to invest; people hoped the share prices would rise further. Speculation thus fueled further rises and created an economic bubble. The average P/E (price to earnings) ratio of S&P Composite stocks was 32.6 in September 1929,^[9] clearly above historical norms. Most economists view this event as the most dramatic in modern economic history. Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Speculation involves the buying, holding, and selling of stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies, collectibles, real estate, derivatives or any valuable financial instrument to profit from fluctuations in its price as opposed to buying it for use or for income via methods such as dividends or interest. ... In finance, leverage (or gearing) is using given resources in such a way that the potential positive or negative outcome is magnified. ... bubbles are things that you make out of soap. ... In finance, the PE ratio of a stock (also called its earnings multiple, just multiple, or P/E) is calculated as: The price per share (numerator) is the market price of a single share of the stock. ...

On October 24, 1929 (with the Dow just past its September 3 peak of 381.17), the market finally turned down, and panic selling started. 12,894,650 shares were traded in a single day as people desperately tried to mitigate the situation. This mass sale was considered a major contributing factor to the Great Depression. Economists and historians, however, frequently differ in their views of the crash's significance in this respect [citation needed]. Some hold that political over-reactions to the crash, such as the passage of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act through the U.S. Congress, caused more harm than the crash itself. is the 297th day of the year (298th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 246th day of the year (247th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Representative W.C. Hawley, and Senator Reed Smoot shake hands in agreement on new tariff bill The Hawley-Smoot Tariff (or Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act)[1] was signed into law on June 17, 1930, and raised U.S. tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods to record levels, and, in... The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States of America. ...

Official investigation of the Crash

In 1931, the Pecora Commission was established by the U.S. Senate to study the causes of the crash. The U.S. Congress passed the Glass-Steagall Act in 1933, which mandated a separation between commercial banks, which take deposits and extend loans, and investment banks, which underwrite, issue, and distribute stocks, bonds, and other securities. The Pecora Commission is the name commonly referred to by the public and the United States Center for Legislative Archives, for the commission established on March 4, 1932 by the United States Senate Banking and Currency Committee with a mandate to investigate the causes of the Wall Street Crash of... Type Upper House President of the Senate Richard B. Cheney, R since January 20, 2001 President pro tempore Robert C. Byrd, D since January 4, 2007 Members 100 Political groups Democratic Party Republican Party Last elections November 7, 2006 Meeting place Senate Chamber United States Capitol Washington, DC United States... Two separate United States laws are known as the Glass-Steagall Act. ... A commercial bank is a type of financial intermediary and a type of bank. ... For other uses, see Loan (disambiguation). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... For other uses, see Stock (disambiguation). ... For alternative meanings, see bond (a disambiguation page). ... For security (collateral), the legal right given to a creditor by a borrower, see security interest A security is a fungible, negotiable instrument representing financial value. ...

After the experience of the 1929 crash, stock markets around the world instituted measures to temporarily suspend trading in the event of rapid declines, claiming that they would prevent such panic sales. The one-day crash of Black Monday, October 19, 1987, however, was even more severe than the crash of 1929, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell a full 22.6%. (The markets quickly recovered, posting the largest one-day increase since 1932 only two days later.) DJIA (19 July 1987 through 19 January 1988). ... is the 292nd day of the year (293rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar). ...

Impact and academic debate

The Wall Street Crash had a major impact on the U.S. and world economy, and it has been the source of intense academic debate—historical, economic and political—from its aftermath until the present day. The crash marked the beginning of widespread and long-lasting consequences for the United States. The main question is: Did the crash cause the depression, or did it merely coincide with the bursting of a credit-inspired economic bubble? The decline in stock prices caused bankruptcies and severe macroeconomic difficulties including business closures, firing of workers and other economic repression measures. The resultant rise of mass unemployment and the depression is seen as a direct result of the crash, though it is by no means the sole event that contributed to the depression; it is usually seen as having the greatest impact on the events that followed. Therefore the Wall Street Crash is widely regarded as signaling the downward economic slide that initiated the Great Depression.

Many academics see the Wall Street Crash of 1929 as part of an historical process that was a part of the new theories of Boom and bust. According to economists such as Joseph Schumpeter and Nikolai Kondratieff the crash was merely a historical event in the continuing process known as Economic cycles. The impact of the crash was merely to increase the speed at which the cycle proceeded to its next level. According to the economist Milton Friedman in Monetary History of the United States in 1963, the Federal Reserve in the immediate aftermath of the crash rapidly contracted the money supply and so turned the recession into a depression. In economics, the term boom and bust refers to the movement of an economy through economic cycles. ... Joseph Schumpeter Joseph Alois Schumpeter (February 8, 1883 – January 8, 1950) was an economist from Austria and an influential political scientist. ... Nikolai Kondratiev (1892-1938) was a Russian economist. ... An abstract business cycle The business cycle or economic cycle refers to the ups and downs seen somewhat simultaneously in most parts of an economy. ... Milton Friedman (July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American Nobel Laureate economist and public intellectual. ... The Federal Reserve System is headquartered in the Eccles Building on Constitution Avenue in Washington, DC. The Federal Reserve System (also the Federal Reserve; informally The Fed) is the central banking system of the United States. ...

See also

• Great Depression
• Market trends
• Stock market crash

• NYSE
• Stock Exchange
• Dot-com bubble

For other uses, see The Great Depression (disambiguation). ... In investing, financial markets are commonly believed to have market trends[1] that can be classified as primary trends, secondary trends (short-term), and secular trends (long-term). ... A stock market crash is a sudden dramatic decline of stock prices across a significant cross-section of a stock market. ... New York Stock Exchange (June 2003) The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is one of the largest stock exchanges in the world. ... A stock exchange, share market or bourse is a corporation or mutual organization which provides facilities for stock brokers and traders, to trade company stocks and other securities. ... The dot-com bubble was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1995–2001 during which stock markets in Western nations saw their value increase rapidly from growth in the new Internet sector and related fields. ...

Notes

It has been suggested that Two Santa Claus Theory be merged into this article or section. ... Richard Salsman is an an American economist and lecturer. ... New York: A Documentary Film is a seven-part American documentary on the history of New York City produced by Ric Burns that originally aired in the U.S. on PBS. The first four two-hour installments, which covered the history of the city from its founding to the turn... New York: A Documentary Film is a seven-part American documentary on the history of New York City produced by Ric Burns that originally aired in the U.S. on PBS. The first four two-hour installments, which covered the history of the city from its founding to the turn... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 76th day of the year (77th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Further reading

• Bierman, Harold. "The 1929 Stock Market Crash". EH.Net Encyclopedia, edited by Robert Whaples. August 11, 2004. URL http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/Bierman.Crash
• Brooks, John. (1969). Once in Golconda: A True Drama of Wall Street 1920-1938. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 0-393-01375-8.
• Galbraith, John Kenneth. (1954). The Great Crash: 1929. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-85999-9.
• Klein, Maury. (2001). Rainbow's End: The Crash of 1929. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-195-13516-4.
• Klingaman, William K. (1989). 1929: The Year of the Great Crash. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 0-060-16081-0.
• Salsman, Richard M. “The Cause and Consequences of the Great Depression” in The Intellectual Activist, ISSN 0730-2355.

• “Part 1: What Made the Roaring ’20s Roar”, June, 2004, pp. 16–24.
• “Part 2: Hoover’s Progressive Assault on Business”, July, 2004, pp. 10–20.
• “Part 3: Roosevelt's Raw Deal”, August, 2004, pp. 9–20.
• “Part 4: Freedom and Prosperity”, January, 2005, pp. 14–23.

• Shachtman, Tom. (1979). The Day America Crashed. New York: G.P. Putnam. ISBN 0-399-11613-3.
• Thomas, Gordon, and Max Morgan-Witts. (1979). The Day the Bubble Burst: A Social History of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-14370-2.