The Build-Up to Disaster
Ever wondered how an entire country can go from boom to bust almost overnight? The Wall Street Crash happened because the American economy in the 1920s was like a house of cards - impressive from the outside, but dangerously unstable.
Overproduction became a massive problem when factories produced more goods than people could actually afford to buy. The top 5% of Americans owned 33% of the nation's wealth, whilst the bottom 40% only had 12.5%. This meant most people simply couldn't afford all the cars, radios, and household goods being manufactured.
The Fordney-McCumber Tariff of 1922 made things worse by putting high taxes on foreign imports. Other countries retaliated with their own tariffs on American goods, making it even harder to sell products abroad. Between 1920-29, US manufacturing capacity rose by 50% but imports only grew by 38% - a clear sign of trouble ahead.
Land speculation in Florida gave everyone a preview of what was coming. Miami's population exploded from 30,000 to 130,000 between 1920-25 as people rushed to buy property. However, by 1926 the Florida Land Boom collapsed due to poor infrastructure and a devastating hurricane that made investors think twice.
Key Point: When the top 5% of Americans owned a third of the nation's wealth, there simply weren't enough customers with money to keep the economy growing.
The bull market of the 1920s convinced people that share prices would rise forever. Share values on the New York Stock Exchange nearly doubled from 34billionto64 billion between 1925-29. Many Americans borrowed money to buy shares at just 10% of their price, hoping to sell them later for a profit - President Hoover called it a "mad orgy of speculation."