The Crash of 1929
By 1929, Charles Mitchell, President of the National City Bank (which would become Citibank), had popularized the idea of selling stock and high yield bonds directly to smaller investors. Mitchell and a very small group of bankers, brokers, and speculators manipulated the stock market, grew wealthy and helped create the economic boom of that fabulous decade.
Their successes made them folk heroes of the day. The Crash of 1929 chronicles a fateful year through the words and experiences of the descendants of these titans of finance.
In 1929, while the market was rising, seemingly without limits, there were few critics. Based on eight years of continued prosperity, presidents and economists alike confidently predicted that America would soon enter a time when there would be no more poverty, no more depressions — a “New Era” when everyone could be rich.
Instead it was the rich who became became richer. Jesse Livermore, a Wall Street insider, drove around town in one of six yellow Rolls Royces. His daughter-in-law describes his two yachts, private railway car and five homes, including an apartment on Fifth Avenue he bought to have a place where he could change clothes for the theater. (Excerpt from pbs.org)
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great reminder to all of us to realize how irrational it is to think that a market can stay up forever. for someone to be really rich, there have to be many who are poor…
…I disagree. For some to be “really rich”, there has to be many who either don’t pay attention, don’t work hard, don’t stay smart, don’t pay attention, don’t have good ideas, and don’t care how they get rich as long as it’s fast and easy. It’s really a relatively few people who have little to know control over their own lives in America. Obviously, in other places, that may be more or less.
Really…don’t blame the rich for everything. We all have present and past historical examples of what (not) to do. This is like blaming McDonald’s in-shape, wealthy CEO for why you’re fat and poor.
(not saying you, eddie…just saying)
well i think its weird that alot of people lost every thing but there were people that got really rich. the money that was in the market wasn’t lost but mearly tranfered and consolidated to the few that orchestrated the crash to begin with. then they got even richer by buying the stocks that were out there for pennies on the dollar
If in five years time every American could earn and save enough money to afford living the rest of their lives without a job…
Guess what would happen?
Profits flow in only one direction. Up. And there’s a very limited amount of space at the top.
Fact/Enlightenment: “For some to be really rich, there have to be many who are poor.”
Fiction/Ignorance: “It’s really a relatively few people who have little to no control over their own [economic destiny] in America.”
THIS IS THE RESULT OF A SYSTEM THAT PROMOTE UNJUSTLY DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH
Well at least we have nothing but blue skys from now on!
Right?
Capitalism is a symptom of deeper problems. As long as there is selfishness and greed on a large scale there will be an imperfect government and economy. The poor is to blame as much as he rich. We are all guilty as charged because where one side takes advantage of the resources, the other side allows itself to suffer needlessly. Centuries ago humankind flourished under a just system, but those lessons are lost to a pre-history we have all but forgotten. The Golden Age will return; every cycle has a new beginning. With the rebirth, however, will come new leaders, new people, and integrity will replace the greed, cure the economic and governmental body before yet another sad return to today.