Stock Markets Exposed

Did stockbrokers really kill themselves during the 1929 stock market crash?

Jumped out windows, poison or shoot themselves? Taniya G - Options for what?

Public Comments

1. some did
2. Yes, they truly did commit suicide by jumping out windows etc., and it wasn't just the Stockbrokers. Many people lost entire fortunes and were left destitute. Poverty, in those days, was very serious, there was no welfare, Food Stamps or Social Network for support of any kind. It was only during the Depression that soup kitchens were "invented".
3. Yes, but nowhere near the degree movies depict. This notion began partly as a cartoon that was printed showing brokers standing in line on a skyscraper ledge to jump; in fact the suicide rate went up about 30% over the next few years, but that's EVERYBODY- lots of penniless dirt farmers to former billionaires. Human self-preservation is pretty impressive.
4. True story - my guess is they owed someone a chunk of money and their fate would have been worse. Yeh I'm too fat and cause theres no easy money anymore I might have to do a days work.
5. Yes, and not just stock brokers, but bank managers, corporate exs, high financiers, etc, as well as small farmers and factory workers who lost everything, and there was no assistance to fall back on, no welfare, no food stamps, no easy bankruptcy. they would loose it all, in minutes, and see no future. It was by no means epidemic, but go to a library and look in any decent size newspapers of a few weeks right after the crash, and the accounts are there. We really can't relate to such utter loss, we have many stop gaps that hopefully will ease such things in the future, so far so good.
6. yes