929, the Margin Requirement Rate. Traditionally, the issue of people buying stocks on margin during the 1920s is often blamed for the unjustifiable stock speculation that took place. This was definitely a factor in the crash, but it didn't have to be. Since the Fed failed so miserably in its rate increase attempts, it should have raised the Margin Requirement rate when it became apparent that the stock market rise might be unsustainable at the rate that it was proceeding. Doing so would have thus required investors to pay more up front for their investments into the stock market. In the 1920s, the rate was a meager 10%. The Fed should have raised them dramatically in the mid-1920s, when anyone with the correct economic data in front of them showed that the stock market rise coupled with inflation and the post-war overproduction of many industries was pointing the economy down a dead end. Had the margin rate been raised to 50%, which is today's rate, which would have guaranteed to the Fed that people had at least half the money nee
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