Research Paper on:
Fed's Role in the 1929 Stock Market

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
bombing of Pearl Harbor, October 29, 1929, the day forever known as "Black Tuesday," would live in infamy. The stock market crash of 1929 was not some sudden fluke;  quite the contrary, it was a long time in coming. While most of America was enjoying prosperity during the 1920s, the American farmer was not. Farm production was  in decline, but nobody bothered to notice. By August of 1929, American industrial production followed suit by taking a nosedive (Amacher and Sweeney 165). However, the economy seemed  to rebound the following month, and on September 3, 1929, the New York stock market reached a record high (Friedrich 54). However, a statistician named Roger Babson cautioned that,  "Sooner or later a crash is coming, and it may be terrific" (Friedrich 54). Unfortunately, nobody heeded Babsons warnings. In fact, the National City Bank of New York  Chairman Charles E. Mitchell announced in October that there was no cause for alarm, and that "our credit situation is in no way critical" (Friedrich 54). However, on Wednesday,  October 23, 2.6 million shares of stock were sold during the last hour of business and the industrial average declined from 415 to 384 (Friedrich 54). Less than one  week later, on Tuesday, October 29, William Crawford, superintendent of the New York Stock Exchange opened trading with his gavel, just like he did every workday (Feinberg PG). But  this would prove to be no ordinary day. Within a half hour, 3,259,800 shares of stock had been sold, which represented a loss of over $2 billion (Feinberg PG).  By noon, the situation became so grave, that the acting president of the New York Stock Exchange, Richard Whitney, called a secret meeting of the Federal Reserves governors committee,