In this episode we arrive at one of the most infamous and consequential financial catastrophes in modern history: the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed in its wake.
This is the story of how the Roaring Twenties - an era filled with jazz music drifting from speakeasies, automobiles rolling off assembly lines, radios bringing voices into every living room, skyscrapers rising toward the clouds, and an almost unshakable belief in permanent prosperity - came crashing down in a matter of days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average had climbed nearly sixfold over the course of the decade, driven by margin lending, speculative fervor, and an almost religious faith in a “new era” of unending growth.
