Rose mentions that Cal killed himself because the "crash of '29" hit his interests hard. What is the crash of '29?

-- Elizbeth Hinds (liz_23@hotmail.com), February 13, 1998

Answers

Response to Crash of 29?

Stock market crash. Many lost everything and many commited suicide over it.

-- Peter Nivling (pcnivling@capecod.net), February 13, 1998.

Response to Crash of 29?

The crash of '29 refers to the stock market crash that began the Great Depression of the 1930's. Many people, from the richest to the middle-class to just above the poorest, were finacially ruined. Much of the world's economy was devastated.

The stock market lost about 46% of its value in the space of ten days, starting on October 23, 1929. For those of you who watch the evening news, that would be the equivalent of the Dow Jones Average losing nearly 4000 points over the next two weeks. It was not a pretty sight.

A real-life casuality of the depression was the White Star Line. All the major ship companies were hit hard by the economic downturn; many were forced out of business. White Star had to abandon its plans to replace the outdated Olympic and its other major liners with a new set of 80,000 ton ships and instead merged with the Cunard Line. For a few years the company was called Cunard-White Star, but eventually this was dropped; now its just Cunard.

-- Thomas Shoebotham (cathytom@ix.netcom.com), February 13, 1998.

Many people would say that the market crash in 1929 was the cause of the great depression. But the stock market crash was not the cause-- it was only a symptom of the economy of North America. The economy of North America was based on its primary resources. They invested all there resources on their primary resource. So if their primary resources dropped their whole economy dropped. That's why the Stock Market crash, 1929 is so important to the "Great Depression". "Wall Street crash 1929, a panic in the US following an artificial stock market boom 1927-29 fed by speculation of shares bought on 10% margin. On Oct 24, 1929, 13 million shares changed hands, with further heavy selling on Oct 28, and the disposal of 16 million shares on Oct 29. Many stockholders were ruined, banks and businesses failed, and unemployment rose to approximately 17 million during the Great Depression". ("Webster's concise interactive encyclopedia") There were 6 different reasons of why the Depression started.

#1 over production over expansion One of the things that caused the depression was over production companies would over build supplies then lay off people. During the prosperous 1920s Canadian And American agriculture and industry were reaching high levels of production. Almost every industry was expanding. They spent large amounts of their profits adding to their factories or building new ones. Huge supplies of food, newsprint, minerals and manufactured goods were being produce in Canada and simply stockpiled, automobile centers such as Oshawa and Windsor produced over 400 000 cars in 1930. To do this made little sense because Canadians already owned over a million cars and in the best year ever had purchased only 260 000. The Canadian market could only absorb so many goods.

#2 Canada's dependence on a few primary products Canada was too wealthy to depend on a few primary or basic products. These products were wheat, fish, minerals, and pulp and paper. Canada's most important exports were these goods. They are known as staples. As on as there was a heavy demand in the world for these products, Canada would prosper. However if there was a surplus of theses goods on the world market, or if foreign countries stopped buying from Canada, our economy would be in serious trouble. That's just what happened in 1930s, there were terrible droughts. With out adequate rainfall, no crops grew. With little income, farmers could not purchase machinery and manufactured goods from eastern Canada. Many could not afford to pay the mortgages on their farms. With no wheat to be shipped and no flour to be ground, railways and flower mills began to feel the effects of the drought.

#3 Canada's dependence on the united stated Canadian economy depended on the trades with American economy. When the American economy crashed we couldn't trade with no one else. Our economy depended so much on the American economy that when they crashed we crashed. 65% of our imports were from the Americans. 40% of our exports were sent to the Americans.

#4 High tariffs choked off international trade In the 1920s the Europeans were recovering form world war 1. The Europeans needed many supplies that the Canadians and the Americans made. Unfortunately the Europeans were so much in debt they couldn't afford to buy the supplies that they so desperately needed. During the 1920s many country adopted a policy protective tariffs. To keep other countries invading there own the put high tariffs on foreign imports. When they did this they slowed down the trade between countries. But this policy did keep out many factories and companies that were out of the country out.

#5 Too much credit buying During the 1920s there was a slogan "buy now pay later". This slogan was sort of a false god during the 1920s. When they bought the item they ended up paying more then what they could have bought it for. But if they were also unable to make the payments monthly the item was taken away. During the depression families found them selves in too much debt. They ended up loosing every thing refrigerators, stoves, washing machines, cars and even their homes.

#6 Too much credit buying of stocks Foe many people the stock market was a get rich quick. Many people gambled on the stock market many people became rich and many people became poor. To get a loan in the stock market you could go to a broker and pay 10% of the cash u needed and he would give u the rest. The deal was as soon as your stocks went up you would be able to pay your broker. But when the stock market crashed no one wanted the stocks as the prices drilled down people went into poverty. As people tried to get rid of their stocks the price went down because no one wanted the stocks. The people had no money when the stocks went down so low. Their possessions were taken by the brokers to make up for the money they borrowed.

-- Tyler seib (lseib@junction.net), December 16, 1998.

The crash of '29 or the great depression as many call it, was brought upon America as a judgement from God. America had become so comsumed with wealth and prosperity that they had forgotten that these blessings come from God. God will not allow us to put other things before him. America is headed down the same road again. Watch out judgement is coming!

-- Loren Hicks (lhicks@atlascomm.net), March 10, 1999.

Well thank you Loren for that bit of fire and brimstone.

-- Gilded Age Junkie (gildedagejunkie@yahoo.com), March 13, 1999.

As another Loren Hicks, who isn't the Loren Hicks who responded above, I would most sincerely like to apologize to the thread for the conduct of this other Loren Hicks. He (or she, Loren Hicks being used as much for one as the other) is not reperesentative of the opinions of all Loren Hicks.

In fact, the Crash of '29 was not caused by one or the other of the supposed dieties. As I recall, most of them were too busy trying to figure out how to deal with the Christians given the pending endangerment of lions.

In any event, that's not why Cal killed himself.

-- Loren Hicks (zdl@mightypen.ca), March 05, 2002.

yty

-- ljkhag kuhf lj (adfg@dhxyj.xdt), April 20, 2004.