"Given a chance to go forward with the policies of the last eight years, with the help of God, be in sight of the day when poverty will be vanished from this Nation"
- Herbert Hoover
The 1920's brought us so many of the household convieniences that we take for granted these days. The refrigerator, mass-marketing, radios, air conditioners, electricity in most cities, deoderant, consumer credit, rayon, wealth beyond wildest imagination - these were the realities of the 1920's.
Owning and buying shares in the stock market became a national pastime. Watching a ticker-tape became a a fun way to spend an evening with friends. The average citizen was borrowing money to buy stock - $10,000 in cash could get you $100,000 in stock - but the stock market wasn't controlled. Stocks could be (and were) easily manipulated - people would buy a certain stock, aquire a postion as a leader, offer good press and sit back as people invested. Then, they would leave very wealthy while the others were left to figure their way through it.
This informative documentary opened my eyes to the incredible inventions of the time. I have a hard time imagining living without so many of these things. I also never realized how corrupt the stock market was in the early days. It's almost incomprehensible to think someone could bring up the value of a stock by walking through the floor of the stock exchange, offering more money per share than everyone else and somehow that ONE little action could mean the difference between the success and failure of the ENTIRE market.
The PBS Documentary Link
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