Oversættelse!

Dette skal oversættet til danks... 30 point come on!

One way of making money during the 1920s was to buy stocks and shares. Prices of these stocks and shares constantly went up and so investors kept them for a short-term period and then sold them at a good profit. As with consumer goods, such as motor cars and washing machines, it was possible to buy stocks and shares on credit. This was called buying on the margin and enabled speculators to sell off shares at a profit before paying what they owed. In this way it was possible to make a considerable amount of money without a great deal of investment.

In an article entitled Everybody Ought to be Rich, John Jaskob claimed that by investing $15 a month in stocks and shares it would be possible to make $80,000 over the next 20 years. Another investor, Will Payne, stated in 1929 that it had become so easy to make money on the Wall Street Stock Exchange, that it had ceased to become a gamble. He went on to say that a gambler wins only because someone loses, when you invest in stocks and shares, everybody wins.

On 3rd September 1929 the stock market reached an all-time high. In the weeks that followed prices began to decline. Then on 24th October, over 12,894,650 shares were sold. Prices fell dramatically as sellers tried to find people willing their shares. That evening, five of the country's bankers, led by Charles E. Mitchell, chairman of the National City Bank, issued a statement saying that due to the heavy selling of shares, many were now under-priced. This statement failed to halt the reduction in demand for shares. On 29th October, over 16 million shares were sold. The market had lost 47 per cent of its value in twenty-six days.

Although less than one per cent of the American people actually possessed stocks and shares, the Wall Street Crash was to have a tremendous impact on the whole population. The fall in share prices made it difficult for entrepreneurs to raise the money needed to run their companies. Within a short time, 100,000 American companies were forced to close and consequently many workers became unemployed. As there was no national system of unemployment benefit, the purchasing power of the American people fell dramatically. This in turn led to even more unemployment.



/dela