Why read it? Because if bankers and financiers had read it, the great housing bubble of the 1990s and 2000s might not have happened.Speculation was the cause of the Stock Market Crash of 1929, buying stocks with a percentage of the cost, the stocks becoming then collateral for the rest of the purchase price. However, the stock market crash contributed to in uncertain ways, but did not cause the Depressionfailure of the economy and unemployment were the cause of the Depression. The economy crashed along with the stock market, but the crash of the stock market did not necessarily cause the failure of the economy and its resulting Depression.In the stock market crash of 29, selling seemed to become an unstoppable epidemic, beyond any ones control, a form of mass madness. It is a myth that the stock market crash of 1929 led to a wave of suicides. Suicides were actually higher when times were good. What did increase was the discovery of embezzlements after the crash because people had embezzled to put the money in the stock market with assurance that their profits would enable them to pay it back. With the crash, there was no money to pay back. And it was a myth that everyone was in the stock market. Only one-and a-half million of 120 million people were active in the stock market.The only assurance against another stock market crash is to read the history of the crash of 29.Some sample ideas from the book: Believers do not want to hear the reality of negative information. In the Crash of 1929, the worst became only the beginning of even worse. This book is meant to be a history of the 1929 Crash; it is not meant to predict the next one. The only way to avoid a repetition of the Crash of 29 is to re-read its history. Sermons suggested that we deserved what was happening because we wanted to be rich and had lost our spiritual values. 'Support, organized or otherwise, could not contend with the overwhelming pathological desire to sell.' The stock market crash can be explained. The Depression that followed cannot.With the crash, the rate of discovery of embezzlement increased. What fueled the crash was the assurances from the wise men of the community. What does 'due to a technical condition of the market' mean? Economic advice during the stock market collapse made things worse. People look to the government to tell them what to do. When it doesnt come, they sell. The balanced budget was a strait jacket on government spending. Some morbid humor: 'Clerks in downtown hotels were said to be asking guests whether they wished the room for sleeping or jumping.' After saying that words did not help in economic disturbances, President Hoover proceeded to use words to assure the country that all was well economically.One justification for the no-action meeting is that ideas were exchangedbut nothing was done. Sales people and sales executives justify the no-action meeting as rededication to the daily task. 'No-business' meetings give the impression of action because of the importance of the people in attendance. 'No-business' meetings attended by important people in a variety of fields have become an institution of government. Myth: Because it has happened yesterday, profit will be realized the next day and the day after that. Myth: ten good years must be followed by seven bad years. The community did not want to deal directly and openly with the problems it was facing. They [the experts] said nothing but they said it well.