The Great Depression - The Crash | 1

American History Tellers

Wondery

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, History, Education For Kids

4.7 • 18.3K Ratings

🗓️ 20 February 2019

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Roaring Twenties came to a screeching halt on October 29, 1929, with the collapse of the U.S. stock market. A year earlier, president Herbert Hoover had coasted to victory by promising the American people “a chicken for every pot” and “a car in every backyard.” Lured by the promise of skyrocketing markets, many first-time investors got caught up in margin trading, borrowing money to make bigger stock purchases than they could actually afford. It was a foolproof way to make money, so long as stock prices kept rising.

But then, on the morning of Tuesday, October 29, more than sixteen million shares changed hands on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. By the market’s close, investors had lost tens of billions of dollars — and kicked off a decade that would reshape American institutions, even as labor unrest, racial tensions, and the dark shadow of nativism pushed back from all sides.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to American History Tellers add free on Amazon Music, download the app today.
0:18.0	Imagine this Tuesday, October 29th, 1929.
0:22.0	You're working at your regular spot on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, but today is anything but regular.
0:28.0	The screens are so deafening that you can't even hear the trading bell.
0:32.0	Your screaming is loud as anyone. Your hand stretches high in the air and you strain for a buyer to see you.
0:38.0	You need to move fast. The prices are tumbling.
0:41.0	Every time you hear someone make a trade, prices seem to plunge lower.
0:44.0	Even solid bets like US Steel and Westinghouse are crumbling. You need to get out.
0:50.0	Adult men, shove and jossal like grade school kids straining to be first in line.
0:55.0	You're shouting at the top of their lungs. To their eyes burn as much as yours, you haven't slept all weekend.
1:01.0	Trader's clamor has allied chemical stocks plummet. Someone wails like he's just been gutted.
1:07.0	You see a man sitting right on the trading room floor holding his head and agony.
1:11.0	The din echoes off the exchange of stone walls. You get ready to offer a thousand shares of RCA at way too low a discount.
1:20.0	Just as you open your mouth, you're knocked to the ground.
1:23.0	As you scramble back to your feet, you see a portly trader in a gray vest cursing at the man he just pushed into you.
1:29.0	The traders face reddens as he yells. His rolled up sleeve tightens as he winds up for a punch.
1:34.0	The other trader ducks, but you don't. The last thing you see is his fist.
1:39.0	You come to sprawled on the cool marble floor of the lobby.
1:47.0	A drum beat of pain pounds behind your eyes. Blood drips from your nose onto a trading slip clutch between your shaking fingers.
1:54.0	And for a second, terror washes over you. The slip is ruined.
1:59.0	Then you realize your worries meaningless. People are rushing back and forth through the lobby kicking up hundreds of similar trading slips.
2:07.0	Traders have abandoned them. It's all worthless. Hey, are you okay?
	...

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