On Thursday 24 October, 1929, Winston Churchill visited the New York Stock Exchange and described the scene as 'one of surprising calm'. During that day 13 million shares were traded, Friday saw similar heavy trading, and on Monday the real disaster began. Ten thousand million dollars were knocked off the value of shares... the Wall Street Crash had happened.
Peter Hobday reports on the events of those calamitous days 50 years ago, and considers with Professor Milton Friedman and Professor Kenneth Galbraith the causes of the crash, and whether it could happen now.