The stock market in the 1920s held far less importance then than it does today. At that time, very few people had access to the stock market. The shoe shine b

The stock market in the 1920s held far less importance then than it does today. At that time, very few people had access to the stock market. The shoe shine boy anecdote is mythology. It is true that margin calls cascaded to obliterate billions of dollars of value, but the investors impacted were mostly trading firms, banks, and capitalists. Joe sixpack had no exposure to it since there was no such thing as a market-backed pension fund (who even had pensions back then?) and 401(k). Corporate earnings did not drop significantly during and months after the crash. Production and consumption were not affected. The primary reason for bank failures in the following year were from agricultural defaults. The small, regional banks were the first to fall, not the big city banks. I don't contest any of your points except "The roaring 20s caused the Great Depression." The economic growth in the 1920s was steady and mostly not speculative. The stock market was speculative but Finance was a much smaller part of the economy at that time. An avalanche of other factors were the causes. I have no firm opinion regarding post-WW2 growth as anomalous. I think that the idea has merit. The scope of my argument is limited to 1890-1933.