Will 1929 Happen Again?

Thirty Years After . . . October 1959  
Difference No. 1: How We Buy  
Difference No. 2: Who Is Buying  
Difference No. 3: The Institutional Investor  
Difference No. 4: The "Rhythm" of Buying  
Difference No. 5: Regulations  
Difference No. 6: We Know What Happened Once  
Difference No. 7: The Basic Economy  
Difference No. 8: A New Attitude  

The preceding section of this book gave you some hints about investing in the stock market. But the memory of the 1929 crash discouraged many from putting money into stocks. Just how real is that fear? Can you invest with confidence or not?

A while ago, Edward N. Gadsby, the chairman during the Eisenhower Administration of the Securities and Exchange Com­mission, the Federal Government's major financial policing agency, delivered a long speech in which he explained why he thought there would not be a repetition of the holocaust of 1929—the year which marked the start of the worst stock market collapse in all history and the worst depression of all time. After going through his list of reasons for this comforting belief and coming to the very end of his address, Mr. Gadsby paused dramatically and with a wry smile told his audience, "Of course, I could be wrong"

In this chapter I am not ducking behind any similar and, to me, not so amusing tag line. I fervently believe there never will be another "1929," for we'll not permit one and we'll take what­ever steps are essential to prevent one. Just as fervently I believe that if I am wrong and there is a repetition of overwhelming catas­trophe in Wall Street, I won't have the privilege of reporting it in a free press, and you won't have the chance to read my reports or those of any other objective observer.

And what if I am wrong in my confidence that the great dis­tinctions between this era and that of thirty years ago mean there'll not again be a comparable convulsion? Then 1 think it won't matter much to those of us who treasure the American system of private enterprise, capitalism, and democracy born almost two centuries ago. The system will be dead.

Thirty Years After . . . October 1959  
Difference No. 1: How We Buy  
Difference No. 2: Who Is Buying  
Difference No. 3: The Institutional Investor  
Difference No. 4: The "Rhythm" of Buying  
Difference No. 5: Regulations  
Difference No. 6: We Know What Happened Once  
Difference No. 7: The Basic Economy  
Difference No. 8: A New Attitude