The Great Crash 1929

Rating:
Summary: Old Read
Review: I read this book as a class assignment in 1975. I still remember its lessons and occasionally refer to it. As with all works of economists, it reflects the author's opinion, not necessarily provable fact. It is however, easy to read and an important work on subject of the 1929 crash. If you are interested in the subject, read this book, then read more, preferably by a monetarist.

Rating:
Summary: Book shows age
Review: I was very disapointed by this book. After just finishing the 400+ pages book "Bull! from Maggie Mahar" which is an absolute ecxellent book about market cycles (although the more recent boom of 1982-1999), "The great Crash" was really hard to read. It totally shows its age (it was written more than 50 years ago). The language is hard to understand and some words seem weird in todays time.

But its not just the language which makes this book not enjoyable. It is not written with much entertainment value, and the book I mentioned earlier shows clearly that it is quite possible to write an very entertaining book about the stock market. It also is very superficial, it doesn't go into much detail at all. It doesn't tell any examples of real people or anything which would make the book more readable.

It lists names and companies without doing a good part of explaning why it lists them. Sometimes I was thinking to myself "Please get to your point."

That book was probably a good read in 1955 while people still could relate to most of the names he lists. But now (2004) there must be better books out there about the Crash of 1929.

I give it two stars and not one (you can't give zero stars) because it has some interesting facts. Overall I would NOT recommend this book. Try another one about this subject.

Rating:
Summary: A must read for a research paper
Review: I'm a junior in high school doing a research paper on the stock market crash of 1929. Without reading this book I would be left in the dark. Reading 6 other books, Galbraith is the only author who writes in a language that is easily understandable to someone who does not know how to calculate a beta ranking for a stock.

Rating:
Summary: Informing, but slow
Review: Recall the talk before the bust of the "New Economy," in which distended P/E ratios and lack of profits were to be irrelevant. Recall Enron's public proclamations of its stability and projected earnings increases. Keep these in mind as you read The Great Crash, and you will never again listen to an analyst, much less an executive.

Galbraith's theme is that market stability and corporate interests are fundamentally at odds. CEOs will never speak evil about their own companies or the condition of the market, so their speech is about as useful to an investor as a pre-game pep talk is to a bettor. Analysts, as well as executives, are salesmen of their own stock, and their primary objective is to get you to buy high.

So why did the 1929 -- or the 2000 -- crash occur? Buying high is great as long as someone is always buying higher; however, such an aggrandized pyramid scheme is doomed to failure. It's as simple as that. So why, then, read Galbraith's book? He is a talented storyteller, and he highlights themes that are likely to accompany future bubbles so that the reader knows what to be skeptical about. This is a very entertaining read, and if you actively compare what Galbraith tells you of the 20's to what you know about the 90's, you'll likely not be swept away by future investing mania.

Rating:
Summary: Very relevant today
Review: Recall the talk before the bust of the "New Economy," in which distended P/E ratios and lack of profits were to be irrelevant. Recall Enron's public proclamations of its stability and projected earnings increases. Keep these in mind as you read The Great Crash, and you will never again listen to an analyst, much less an executive.

Galbraith's theme is that market stability and corporate interests are fundamentally at odds. CEOs will never speak evil about their own companies or the condition of the market, so their speech is about as useful to an investor as a pre-game pep talk is to a bettor. Analysts, as well as executives, are salesmen of their own stock, and their primary objective is to get you to buy high.

So why did the 1929 -- or the 2000 -- crash occur? Buying high is great as long as someone is always buying higher; however, such an aggrandized pyramid scheme is doomed to failure. It's as simple as that. So why, then, read Galbraith's book? He is a talented storyteller, and he highlights themes that are likely to accompany future bubbles so that the reader knows what to be skeptical about. This is a very entertaining read, and if you actively compare what Galbraith tells you of the 20's to what you know about the 90's, you'll likely not be swept away by future investing mania.

Rating:
Summary: Timeless Classic -- Style A Bit Insouciant
Review: Somebody on comp.software.year-2000 urged me to read this Galbraith volume because, he noted, "the parallels with current economic conditions -- with an out-of-control, logic-defying stock market, and happy-face government posturing in face of obvious disaster -- make it a must read." Fine. I bought this book 2 weeks ago on amazon (I'm a regular) and just finished.

True, the parallels are there. And I highly recommend the work if nothing more than to highlight in the reader's mind the elements of human nature that insure that we will always have depressions -- every 70 years or so ... secula seculorum... but in a small way, I expected more.

I find Galbraith (author of some 20 works on economics) to lack an emotional, visceral style that should have enunciated a polished telling of this critical set of events - (I say "set" because although October 24, 1929, or "Black Thursday" may have set events in motion... the bottom did not come until July, 1932). To borrow from Trekkies, if I may, I felt like I was following a history lesson from a Vulcan history professor. The chronology was well placed and organized, but there was nothing to help me "feel" the event.

Nonetheless, I appreciated the referral and the read. And I think that this work will have even more renewed interest when the world investment community eventually comes to grips with the lack of rationale in supporting stock values whose P/E ratios stretch well into infinity.

Greg Caton Lumen Foods (soybean.com) [e-mail] March 14, 1999

Rating:
Summary: Timeless Classic -- Style A Bit Insouciant
Review: Somebody on comp.software.year-2000 urged me to read this Galbraith volume because, he noted, "the parallels with current economic conditions -- with an out-of-control, logic-defying stock market, and happy-face government posturing in face of obvious disaster -- make it a must read." Fine. I bought this book 2 weeks ago on amazon (I'm a regular) and just finished.

True, the parallels are there. And I highly recommend the work if nothing more than to highlight in the reader's mind the elements of human nature that insure that we will always have depressions -- every 70 years or so ... secula seculorum... but in a small way, I expected more.

I find Galbraith (author of some 20 works on economics) to lack an emotional, visceral style that should have enunciated a polished telling of this critical set of events - (I say "set" because although October 24, 1929, or "Black Thursday" may have set events in motion... the bottom did not come until July, 1932). To borrow from Trekkies, if I may, I felt like I was following a history lesson from a Vulcan history professor. The chronology was well placed and organized, but there was nothing to help me "feel" the event.

Nonetheless, I appreciated the referral and the read. And I think that this work will have even more renewed interest when the world investment community eventually comes to grips with the lack of rationale in supporting stock values whose P/E ratios stretch well into infinity.

Greg Caton Lumen Foods (soybean.com) [e-mail] March 14, 1999

Rating:
Summary: It is a brilliant masterpiece as usual, typical of Mr Galbra
Review: The book provided a good background of the Depression Years when financial crisis was at its most critical. The scenarios depicted have not hitherto been presented elsewhere. It dealt with the cold financial figures as well as the snippets of emotional side of human dramas behind.It is also a tremendously valuable piece of work in terms of its contribution to history on the topic. It should serve as a valuable "BIble" for people working intimately with the financial circles, when they construct their policy - with the Great Crash as a background reminder. As far as the analytical aspect goes, the insightful pronouncements could not have been done more brilliantly by any other author or academician, past or present.

*Did'nt have time to finish, computer lab closing.

Rating:
Summary: Informing, but slow
Review: The book The Great Crash 1929 by John Kenneth Galbraith was very informative, full of facts and other things which made me understand what the great crash was all about. Although, the book went slow, and I often lost interest in it seeing as how it blasted me with information. I would recommend this book to anybody who really wants to learn about the great depresion, and about how unpredictable the stock market can really be.

Rating:
Summary: School Paper
Review: The book The Great Crash: 1929, by John Galbraith, is a cynical look at the stock market crash of 1929. In his book he tries to convince the reader of the stupidity of the American people for not realizing the eventual collapse of the stock market. The book for what it is worth is factual and the only point is to explain the crash and the stupidity of the people involved. He writes with a style that is cynical, yet all knowing. He makes it very obvious why the crash occurred but when it comes to explaining how it could have been avoided he gets rather shady. All in all, this book is just a factual account of the tragedy of the stock market crash of 1929.
Galbraith starts his book off with the people, and their mindsets, involved in the pre-crash years. In the beginning it seems that people would have known about the stock market crash eventually to occur, but if they did they did not care. People in the years from 1925 to 1929 played the stock market without really even paying for it. In those years you could go to a broker and purchase stock on margin, which means that instead of buying your stocks with the money you have, you put down 10% and make monthly payments. Since everyone was doing it the stock rose and was became worth more in days or even hours so you ended up not even paying for it. The average person would think at this point that people knew that this would not last forever, but they didn't care because they were making money at the time. The question is why did the government not do anything to stop this. Well before the crash Coolidge was in office and he did not care what happened. In 1929 Hoover was inaugurated and he and the F.R.B started having meetings every day about the condition of the stock market.
The first of many smaller crashes and recoveries starting occurring on Monday, March 25, 1929, in the following six months it was the most unreliable, jumpy market ever. Oddly enough though, the summer held much optimism for the market. The crash itself began on Thursday, October 24, 1929. Even at telegraphic speed, the volume of stocks exchanged was having an effect on time. Crowds started to gather outside of the NYSE trying to figure out what was going on and police had to be called to maintain control. On Friday, the market recovered. On Monday, October 28, 1929 over 9,250,000 shares trade but there was not much of a recovery and this lead to Black Tuesday.
Black Tuesday was the result of the stock market boom in the past 5 years. There were to be 16,410,030 shares traded on that day, everyone was trying to get out. In order to get out you had to get sell at market value. People were dumping their securities and causing even more downward pressure on the market. There was no recovery, the market had crashed and it would take a lot of time and effort to rebuild it. Finally there was the aftermath. People who were rich suddenly became poor in the span of a day. The suicide rate for the next few years rose. The entire world was affected by this crash and it eventually led into the great depression.
The author of this book presented a point, the point that people should have done something to prevent the crash of the stock market, and it was easy for him to succeed in proving this point, for what is there to prove. This book, which gives a account of the crash of the stock market in 1929 is accurate in all accounts and has no falsities in it as far as can be seen. The information is documented and there are many primary and secondary sources used in the writing of this book. This book is easily understood and is a great tool to explain the stock market crash.