What led to the stock market crash of 1929?
The Roaring Twenties, the decade that led up to the Stock Market Crash, was a time of wealth and excess in the city, and despite caution of the dangers of speculation, many believed that the market could sustain high price levels. Shortly before the crash, economist Irving Fisher famously proclaimed, ‘Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.’ The optimism and financial gains of the great bull market were shattered on Black Thursday, when share prices on the NYSE collapsed. Stock prices fell on that day and they continued to fall, at an unprecedented rate, for a full month.
