Most historians focused on the crash of the Twenties, this is a book about the influence the stock market had on the 20"s and the factors that led to the downfall of the market. Changes in social patterns, dramatic changes in the economy and living standards and a liberalization of financial laws all led to the belief that life had really changed for everyone for the better. Robert Sobel wrote this historiography to show what made this an era of such great growth and the roll that Wall Street and the stock market played in the rise and fall of the Twenties. The Great Bull Market explains why there was a crash, and what the government did and didn't do to prevent a crash.
The stock market and Wall Street are symbols of this era. This was an era of growth and innovation. Things were constantly progressing. The prices of stocks were affordable for most, and the capitalism for investment was maturing. The market could only get better. Margin requirements were minimal. Investment in equities was a risk-less path to success. Sobel Argues, Why buy an equity on credit (time) when for the same price, one could buy equities on margin, gain immense leverage, and pretty much, be guaranteed to make the money back many times over. This was the though process of the average investor.
The second part to The Great Bull Market was about the events that led to the crash. Because investment houses and financial institutions were fueling the fire by making margin cheap and easy. Ultimately, stock prices were held up by nothing. Instability began to spread throughout the market as the crash approached. The government did practically nothing to correct the abuse and excess use of buying stocks on margin and credit purchases, and what they did do had no affect on the market. Ultimately, all these built up problems led to the crash of 1929. The crash wasn't immediately followed by the depression, and there were many lost opportunities after the crash to revive the economy.
