<P> In 1930, 1,352 banks held more than $853 million in deposits; in 1931, one year later, 2,294 banks went down with nearly $1.7 billion in deposits . Many businesses failed (28,285 failures and a daily rate of 133 in 1931). </P> <P> The 1929 crash brought the Roaring Twenties to a halt . As tentatively expressed by economic historian Charles P. Kindleberger, in 1929, there was no lender of last resort effectively present, which, if it had existed and been properly exercised, would have been key in shortening the business slowdown that normally follows financial crises . The crash marked the beginning of widespread and long - lasting consequences for the United States . Historians still debate the question: did the 1929 Crash spark The Great Depression, or did it merely coincide with the bursting of a loose credit - inspired economic bubble? Only 16% of American households were invested in the stock market within the United States during the period leading up to the depression, suggesting that the crash carried somewhat less of a weight in causing the depression . </P> <P> However, the psychological effects of the crash reverberated across the nation as businesses became aware of the difficulties in securing capital market investments for new projects and expansions . Business uncertainty naturally affects job security for employees, and as the American worker (the consumer) faced uncertainty with regards to income, naturally the propensity to consume declined . The decline in stock prices caused bankruptcies and severe macroeconomic difficulties, including contraction of credit, business closures, firing of workers, bank failures, decline of the money supply, and other economically depressing events . </P> <P> The resultant rise of mass unemployment is seen as a result of the crash, although the crash is by no means the sole event that contributed to the depression . The Wall Street Crash is usually seen as having the greatest impact on the events that followed and therefore is widely regarded as signaling the downward economic slide that initiated the Great Depression . True or not, the consequences were dire for almost everybody . Most academic experts agree on one aspect of the crash: It wiped out billions of dollars of wealth in one day, and this immediately depressed consumer buying . </P>

The wall street crash and the great depression in america