Only seven months after Hoover's inauguration as president, he faced an enormous economic crisis. On Tuesday, 29 October 1929, the stock market crashed. Stock prices plummeted. On 3 September General Electric stock had traded at $396 a share; by 13 November it was trading at $168. Stock prices for General Motors, Woolworth, and Westinghouse declined by one-half. Similar stories were repeated across the stock index. Tens of thousands of investors who had purchased stocks on margins went bankrupt. (It was estimated that at the time of the crash about one million Americans had purchased some stocks on margin bids.) Others suffered severe economic losses, and the ramifications of the ensuing economic downturn were enormous. Between 1929 and 1933 the real gross domestic product — a measure of how the economy is faring — fell by 30 percent. In human terms this decline meant unemployment, homelessness, and heartache for millions. People who.....
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