Wall Street Crash
On 24 October 1929 ('Black Thursday') and 29 October ('Black Tuesday'), the New York Stock Exchange experienced two consecutive days of catastrophic selling that wiped out approximately $30 billion in market value — equivalent to roughly ten times the entire US federal budget. The crash followed a decade of speculative excess: stock prices had been inflated far beyond real economic value by buying on margin, and the Federal Reserve had failed to restrain the bubble. Bank runs followed as creditors called in loans; within three years over 9,000 US banks had failed, eliminating the savings of millions. The crash triggered the recall of American short-term loans to Germany and Austria, transmitting the financial catastrophe across the Atlantic and turning a US recession into a global depression. The political consequences of mass unemployment and economic despair would reshape the world.
- Year: 1929 CE
- Category: Economic
