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April 1, 2020

The Great Crash 1929

John Kenneth Galbraith

An entertaining introduction to the run-up of the 1920s stock market and the crash/depression that followed. The parallels with today are present, but almost certainly not predictive. The U.S. had enjoyed a 10-year bull market by 1929, a massive rise in leverage and share buybacks, and public support from leading academics (Professor Irving Fisher), industrialists (the first statement by John D. Rockefeller in decades), politicians and bankers. Investors then relied on “organized support” to keep stock prices elevated and their dreams alive, which first included the big operators like Durant, Raskob and Livermore and later the big banks like J.P. Morgan. The American entrepreneur and economist Roger Babson noted a crash was coming in September 1929 (the “Babson Break”), which began the wave of selling and the periodic rallies when investors (according to the New York Times) felt “secure in the knowledge that the most powerful banks in the country stood ready to prevent a recurrence of panic.” Unlike today, politicians, economists and bankers were then committed to a balanced budget, which meant higher taxes, less spending, and the gold standard limited the flexibility of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy. A quick and easy read, this book may be perfect during this national lockdown.

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