September 16, 2021
Volume 51 - No. 37
By Tom Morrow
Writer’s Note: However “dire” you consider things are in our everyday life, government and society in general, things could be worse … and they were throughout the 1930s and half of the 1940s. We should never repeat those days but somehow history has a way of doing just that.
The Great Depression that plagued the entire third decade of the 20th century took less than a decade to create. Stock market speculation The Paper - 760.747.7119
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frenzy during the "Roaring” 1920s caused vast numbers of Americans to feverishly borrow money in order to buy stocks to get rich quick.
Unlike today's stock market, which has stringent federal safeguards brought about by the wild speculation of that earlier era, the boom of the 1920s became unsteady due to the tremendous amount of borrowed money and false optimism. By 1928, stockbrokers had loaned American investors some 800 mil-
lion, but as stock values escalated through that year and into the next, a buying frenzy ensued.
President Herbert Hoover
By October 1929, this tremendous debt caused the market to c r a s h . Investors immediately lost confidence in their stocks. Loans were called in result-
ing in a selling frenzy that caused a complete financial collapse. Those who sold their shares lost everything. Ironically, the few very investors who held onto their stocks eventually regained losses. History shows the U.S. government had been short-sighted in its banking, securities, and economic policies, which contributed greatly to the “Crash of '29.” Government's "hands-off" attitude toward American business resulted in unchecked investing and borrowing. The result was an unstable
Riches to Rags to Leadership