This is one of the best documentaries on the Crash of 1929 if you wish to get
a feel for the times. You may find it interesting to watch the
whole thing below.
I have posted the entire documentary twice before: once, on the 80th
anniversary of Black Thursday in 2009, and once before in December of 2007.
It was the abuses of the 1920's and the institutionalized political
corruption of easy money and an oversized financial sector, followed by the
terrible Depression of the 1930's that gave rise to the many reforms
introduced by the FDR administration.
Most of which have been steadily overturned, one by one, by the big money
interests who care for nothing but themselves, and would do it again, and
again, if allowed to do so.
Most of the scams of the moneyed interests are remarkably simple, and the
same over time. At least they are once you scrape away the jargon, the
bells and whistles, and paid for policy theories of pedigreed prostitutes.
The titans of Wall Street are no smarter than many smart people who do much
more difficult jobs and lead simple, honest lives. But they are driven, they
are insatiable, and they are shameless.
Enough people are easily fooled in each generation by well scripted
ideological PR campaigns, clever revisions and misrepresentations of history,
and the steady drumbeat of slogans and propaganda to allow the same old scams
and abuses to come back again. And unfortunately even very smart and
powerful and greatly advantaged people are always willing to do anything for
money.
And so every so often the public may demand the 'freedom from the rule of
law' and equal justice to hand themselves and their children over to misery,
debt, and oppression of the one percent.
Here is a link to the
transcript of this documentary.
Narrator: At sea and on land, everyone seemed to be
making money. It was a stampede of buying. And major speculators like John
Jacob Rascob whipped up the frenzy. He told readers of The Ladies’ Home
Journal that now everyone could be rich. September 2nd, Labor Day. It was the
hottest day of the year. The markets were closed and people were at the
beach. A reporter checked in with astrologer Evangeline to ask about the
future of stock prices. Her answer: the Dow Jones could climb to heaven. The
very next day, September 3rd, the stock market hit its all-time high.
Ben Karol, Former Newspaper Delivery Boy: My father and I had an
ongoing discussion about the stock market. And I used to say, “Pop,
everybody’s getting rich but you. You know, you work so hard and you’re never
going to make a nickel. All you do is you keep delivering these newspapers
and that’s about it. The guy who’s shining shoes is in the stock market, the
grocery clerk is in the stock market, the school teacher’s in the stock
market. The teller at the bank is in the stock market. Everybody’s in the
stock market. You’re the only one that’s not in the stock market.” And he
used to sit and laugh and say, “You’ll see. You’ll see. You’ll see.”
Narrator: On September 5th, economist Roger Babson gave a speech to a
group of businessmen. “Sooner or later, a crash is coming and it may be
terrific.” He’d been saying the same thing for two years, but now, for some
reason, investors were listening. The market took a severe dip. They called
it the “Babson Break.” The next day, prices stabilized, but several
days later, they began to drift lower. Though investors had no way of knowing
it, the collapse had already begun
Narrator: In the weeks to follow, the market fluctuated wildly up and
down. On September 12th, prices dropped ten percent. They dipped sharply
again in the 20s. Stock markets around the world were falling, too. Then, on
September 25th, the market suddenly rallied.
Reuben L. Cain, Former Stock Salesman: I remember well that I thought,
“Why is this doing this?” And then I thought, “Well, I’m new here and these
people” — like every day in the paper, Charlie Mitchell would have something
to say, the J.P. Morgan people would have something to say about how good
things were — and I thought, “Well, they know a lot more about this market
than I do. I’m fairly new here and I really can’t see why it’s going up.” But
then, when they say it can’t go down or if it does go down today, it’ll go
back tomorrow, you think, “Well, they really are like God. They know it all
and it must be the way it’s going because they say so.”
Narrator: As the market floundered, financial leaders were as
optimistic as ever, more so. Just five days before the crash, Thomas Lamont,
acting head of the highly conservative Morgan Bank, wrote a letter to
President Hoover. “The future appears brilliant. Our securities are the most
desirable in the world.” Charles Mitchell assured nervous investors that
things had never been better.
Craig Mitchell, Son of Charles E. Mitchell: Practically every business
leader in America, and banker, right around the time of 1929, was saying how
wonderful things were and the economy had only one way to go and that was up.
