1. What is the stock market?
Where people buy and sell ownership of companies (shares)

2. Black Tuesday Tuesday, October 29, 1929
“Anyone who bought stocks in mid-1929 and held onto them saw most of his or her adult life pass by before getting back to even.” –Richard Salsman

3. The 1920s had a “get rich quick” attitude
Not only were people buying new things, but they were investing a lot of money in the stock market
The amount of money invested was not sustainable

4. Chronology of Events
1919- Treaty of Versailles ends WWI; US lends money to Germany and Britain
Early 1920s- farm production is too high, and a large surplus drops prices
Mid-1920s- industrial production increased by 25%; citizens bought and traded an unsustainable amount of stocks; system overloaded
Oct. 29, Black Tuesday; market crashes

5. 1931- European countries began to suffer from the market crash
1932- prices drop to 20% of their previous value; output fell by 54%; unemployment at 25-30%; international markets close
1933- almost half of US banks closed; Hitler rises to power in Germany
1936- depression ends in Germany due to Hitler’s public works programs
% unemployment
1941- WWII begins; depression is over

6. What trend do you see in this diagram?

7. Results
Many people invested all their money, and had nothing else saved
Banks fail
People can no longer afford their homes
Some are forced to sell everything they have just to buy food
The “Great Depression” begins