Text 6 CRASH OF 1929

CRASH OF 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929,[1][2] also known as the Great Crash, was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, taking into consideration the full extent and longevity of its fallout.[3]
The initial crash occurred on Thursday, October 24, 1929, but it was the catastrophic downturn of Monday, October 28 and Tuesday, October 29 that precipitated widespread panic and the onset of unprecedented and long-lasting consequences for the United States.
Economists and historians disagree as to what role the crash played in subsequent economic, social, and political events. On November 23, 1929, The Economist asked: "Can a very serious Stock Exchange collapse produce a serious setback to industry when industrial production is for the most part in a healthy and balanced condition? ... Experts are agreed that there must be some setback, but there is not yet sufficient evidence to prove that it will be long or that it need go to the length of producing a general industrial depression." But The Economist cautioned: "Some bank failures, no doubt, are also to be expected. In the circumstances will the banks have any margin left for financing commercial and industrial enterprises or will they not? The position of the banks is without doubt the key to the situation, and what this is going to be cannot be properly assessed until the dust has cleared away."[5]