Crash

Despite this cycle, stock prices continued to spiral upward. But the market showed warning signs of instability. During the autumn of 1929, stock prices fluctuated wildly, then, on October 24, the stock market was seized by a selling spree. Five days later, on October 29, “Black Tuesday,” the bottom fell out and stock prices plummeted. With prices falling, brokers “called” their margin loans, demanding immediate payment in full on stocks that were now worthless. Many investors were wiped out in an instant. A rash of suicides swept the business community; some investors actually leapt from Wall Street high-rise windows.

President Calvin Coolidge had declared during the booming mid-decade years that “The business of America is business.” Herbert Hoover, elected president in 1928, found himself nervously assuring his stunned and fearful fellow Americans that “prosperity was just around the corner.” As it so happened, that corner would not be turned for an entire decade.