At noon, a new element intervenes. Finally, the long-awaited market support is coming. The six most powerful bankers in New York meet at Morgan's Bank, which faces the Stock Exchange, in the presence of the Secretary of State for Commerce, Thomas W. Lamont. All agree to back the market and pool $240 million for massive stock purchases. After the meeting, Lamont told the newspapers that a small panic had gripped the Stock Exchange. He adds that this misunderstanding is due “more to technical reasons than to a fundamental cause”. He further says that the situation is likely to improve.
News of the bankers' meeting and support measures are spilling out. Immediately, the prices go up. A few minutes later, the vice-president of the New York Stock Exchange appears in person in the room and gives aloud orders to buy at a level that we had not reached all day. Confidence is restored and the market is rising again. It dipped somewhat at the end of the day, but the drop was much less than the day before.
This firming is of little interest to the hundreds of thousands of people who sold their actions and watched their dreams of opulence crumble. It is 8 p.m. when the ticker ends the account of this catastrophic day. In the halls, speculators who have gotten rid of their stocks since morning sit prostrate before the devices. journalists that the market is "fundamentally sound" and that it is "technically much better than it has been for months"...
For two days, the intervention of the bankers' support union continues successfully. Prices, on the whole, remain stable. The average shows a slight increase on Friday, but starts to fall again on Saturday. We have confidence in the intervention of the banks, we attribute the restoration of the situation to it. The New York Times writes:“Reassured in knowing that the most powerful banks in the country are ready to prevent a return to panic, financial circles are appeased today. »
On all sides these are only reassuring declarations. Colonel Leonard Ayres, of Cleveland, believes that no other country could have weathered such a crisis so well. Eugene M. Stevens, president of Continental Illinois Bank, said, “Nothing about the current situation warrants concern. For Walter Teagle, there is no
fundamental shift in the oil market that warrants anxiety. Charles M. Schwab says the steel industry has seen real progress, adding that the “basically sound” situation is the cause. And President Hoover adds:“The main activities of the country, that is to say the production and distribution of goods, are based on solid foundations. Buy now, prosperity is around the corner. »
A single discordant note in this optimistic concert, the voice of Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, who criticizes the "fever of speculation".
On Sunday, in their sermons, pastors suggest that this scourge may not be entirely undeserved. For most people, the crisis is over and we can get back to serious speculation. The newspapers are filled with encouraging prospects for the week ahead. Stocks, it is agreed, are priced low again and a buying frenzy should result. The October 28 newspapers unleash a concerted offensive, prompting immediate and massive purchases. That same Monday begins the disaster.
Gangsters use it to buy weapons, drugs, works of art, and even human organs. But it wasnt like that before. Before WWII, the black market ... did not exist at all. Today we are talking about the black market without much thought, but the name was by no means obvious to the inhabitants of occupie