During the 1920s - the "Roaring Twenties" - the Dow Jones share index rocketed from 88 points to 381 in slightly more than fi ve years. When the market reached its peak in July 1929, America's offi cial unemployment rate was 0.04%. The economy had boomed along with the sharemarket.
People spent and borrowed as if there was no tomorrow. Tomorrow arrived on "Black Thursday" - October 24, 1929.
Three years later, the Dow Jones index had fallen 89% from its peak, to a mere 41 points, less than half its value before the bubble began, and 25% of Americans were out of work.
BNB
babcock & brown limited
