Do you think the people of the Roaring 20's could have ever imagined the deep depression?

dlimb2

Your thoughts!

MrKelso

I beleive that the Bankers knew and tried real hard to stop it.

Steve27

Obviously few were prepared. The Kennedy's did well because their bootlegging money was in cash in a safety deposit box.

cladking

Financial panics used to occur in most generations up to the 1920's. Anyone paying attention
in the late '20's should have seen the warning signs. While the nature, course, and scope of
the depression would be invisible, certainly the fact that a correction was coming could have
been seen.

All such panics are by nature caused by the tendency of people to rally around an idea. The
idea that stocks, money, bonds, or somesuch has become worthless is the typical trigger. While
there are numerous signs today that things are changing it is a much different world than in 1929.
There are ways to prop up almost anything until people calm down. We've had a few panics in
the last thirty years which were aborted by large infusions of cash from Wall Street or government.
The '87 crash was essentially complete on Tuesday when there were virtually no buyers for any
stocks at any price. Money flowed in from a consortium of monied interests and stabilized the
market. Government stepped in in '96 with the collapse of LTCM.

There was a severe risk of panic from around '88 to '97 and it's probably still dropping, but then
so is the dollar.

coynclecter

They knew that these problems occured before, but felt that this time it would be different

Mark

For what it's worth, economists have researched this topic. Based on the data that exist, the basic result is that the Great Depression, which started just a few months before the stock market crash in 1929, "looked" pretty similar to previous recessions throughout 1929 and 1930. It wasn't until later in 1931 that the Great Depression became significantly different than previous recessions. Probably around the middle or slightly later of 1931 many observers knew that the situtation was worse than typical, though I suspect not many had any idea how much worse it was going to get. So, I think the answer to the question posed is "The people of the Roaring 20's had no idea what would befall them not so many years in the future."

Mark

fc

from what i have read/studied, i basically agree with david m kennedy
that the great depression's root cause was WWI.

and then as many agree, WWII got us truly out of it.

hard to discuss this subject with just a few sentences.
authors use 100s of pages of text to make their case.

i suggest "freedom from fear, the american people in
depression and war, 1929-1945" by kennedy.
part of the oxford history of the usa.

a real page turner if you like that era. poor poor wilson.

UncleWiggly

It would have depended on your economic and intellectual standing, and geographical location. Extremely poor, rual people wouldn't have seen it coming, wouldn't have known it had arrived, nor noticed that it had gone. Doubt they would have cared either.



Jerry

fc

the way i understand it, it was rural people it hurt the most.
ala grapes of wrath.

if you have no money to buy seeds, no money to eat, a family
staring at you.. i call that trouble.

edited to add: i see your point though. if u were dirt poor you
were used to it already..

coinkat

Imagine yes... predict or expect no...

Keep in mind there were many folks that remembered how bad the Depression of 1893-1895 was and had not forgotten...

UncleWiggly

<< <i>the way i understand it, it was rural people it hurt the most.
ala grapes of wrath.

if you have no money to buy seeds, no money to eat, a family
staring at you.. i call that trouble.

edited to add: i see your point though. if u were dirt poor you
were used to it already.. >>




Those people moved because of climatic reasons.

paulheep

I believe Uncle Wiggly is correct in both his responses.

Paul

morgannut2

Yep the dust bowl didn't help-- And JP Morgan wasn't around as he was in 1907 crash.

Gemineye

<< <i>I believe Uncle Wiggly is correct in both his responses.

Paul >>



So the poor and uneducated had no idea what was happening to them...................


I'm sure they suffered the worst compared to someone who had lost part of their wealth.........!!!

keets

the way i understand it, it was rural people it hurt the most.

probably not the answer you'd get from my father. he was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio and was a young child living around W. 32nd near old Cleveland Municipal Stadium when the Depressioin hit. my grandparents shipped him off to live with some relatives some about 70 miles away who had a dairy farm and upwards of 300 acres; steady work around the farm and he ate well.

dlimb2

Keets, thats very true for my family also...share croppers of the south...had no money no shoes or cloths only what they made by hand...but they had food to eat and good food...more than what city people had.

dlimb2

The Grapes of Wrath was set during the depression...but the lack of rain in Oklahoma and Texas brought about the dust storms which devastated mans ability to grow the food his family needed to survive the great depression...and what made it so hard was they had no money with which to leave, which only complicated their hardships...no food no money quite a story indeed.

Anyone ever been caught in a dust storm...it is bad you can not even breath...I would take a snow storm any day!

roadrunner

Just like today, 99% of the people in the 1920's did not see a crash or huge problem looming with the easy credit scenario.

roadrunner