Before the crash, during the 1920’s, the stock market grew quickly. People thought we were done with poverty and were worry free. After President Hoover became president, everyone was …show more content…
buying stocks with any extra money they had. They even borrowed money to buy more. People hoped to make a big profit. Interest rates were getting higher in 1928 and 1929. People had a lot of debt and did not make much money. The stock market peaked to 381 on September 3, 1929.
The stock market started to crash.
On October 18, stocks began to fall, everyone started to panic and wanted to sell. 2.9 million shares were traded that day. As a result, billions of dollars disappeared and turned into dust. Companies lost money, people lost jobs and homes, and wages went down. Banks only had ten cents for every dollar. In the early 1940’s, WW2 helped the country’s economy. On November 23, 1954, twenty-five years later, the stock markets were finally up again.
This crash was caused by many events. Many newspapers told about get-rich-quick schemes, so people were buying more land hoping to sell it for profit. People mortgaged their homes to buy stocks. They took all the money from the banks to buy stocks. People bought on credit and couldn’t afford the payments and then couldn’t buy new things. People were buying on margin. When people spend money, they do not have it. This caused problems for the entire country.
Before the crash, people felt like they had everything. They spent more money than they had. Because people were spending money they did not have, the economy crashed. This crash led to people losing their money, their homes, and their jobs. People who felt really rich suddenly because extremely poor. It took twenty-five years for the stock market to get back to the place where it was. This was the worst crash in United States history. Hopefully, this will never happen
again.