The stock market crash in 1929 was the most devastating crash in American history, and contributed to the Great Depression that follows it. The crash of the market was due to a number of reasons, such as World War I weakening the economy by causing an agricultural depression in the 1920's and the unevenly distributed wealth of the "Roaring Twenties". It's most significant cause was the United State's service as the World's banker, as it was the primary creditor to Europe as it struggled to pay war debts from World War I. In addition, the price of stock was excessively over-priced, causing inflation to turn into deflation.
The stock market crash in 1929 can be compared to the recent crash in the stock market in 2008 in the sense that stocks were to the 1920's as collateralized housing loans were to the housing bubble in 2008. One major similarity was the overall consequences of the causes of both crashes built slowly over time in order to produce such drastic effects; however, the main difference between the two economical crises was that in the 1920's, main street economy declined first and then affected the population gradually overtime, but although the housing bubble burst in 2008, main street was only "peripherally" giving way.
References:
1) The Great Crash of 1929 vs The Panic of 2008
2) The 1929 Stock Market Crash
3) Causes of the Great Depression and the Stock Market Crash
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