Today Wall Street is the nation and Main Street is more Wall Street than Wall Street ever was—or probably ever will be. Wall Street is a state of mind; 20,000,000 men and women—investors and speculators—are its corporeal being; and the chattering tape that runs under the glass domes of 12, 000 tickers, up hill and down dale, are its hyper-sensitive nervous system.

Tchkt, tchkt, tchkt,.. . the tape spurts endlessly and inexhaustibly into the tall waste basket; and in Harlem, Bangor, Denver, San Diego and Atlanta, men hang breathlessly over the story it tells, and lustfully or bitterly decode its personal meaning.

Here, surely, is something that none of the old buccaneers, who regarded the public as a necessary — but avoidable—evil, ever dared predict. Indeed, one may count on the fingers of his hand the few authoritative men who predicted it ten years ago. And there are still men in Wall Street—brokers and bankers— who must from time to time pinch themselves to restore the conviction.

But the transition is here, and has been for five years. The public is in Wall Street, and Wall Street is in the public. And this merging of personalities has produced the most spectacular thing that this nation—or the world—has ever witnessed.

Source: The Outlook, 18 September 1929

Related posts:

1. Wall Street 1929 Part 1
2. Wall Street 1929 Part 6
3. Wall Street 1929 Part 4
4. Wall Street 1929 Part 12
5. Wall Street 1929 Part 3

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 at 9:00 am and is filed under Stock Market. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Comments and pings are closed.

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