no place to go but down. The high expectations of those who were convinced that there would continually be rising prices started to whither away and the market with it. On October 29, more popularly referred to as "Black Tuesday", the stock market crashed; and the foundation of credit which was based on the margin debt quickly crumbled. More than 16 million shares were traded as panic selling took hold, but unfortunately there were no buyers for these stocks.
             The underlying weakness in the economy was the unequal distribution of income and wealth among Americans during the era in which the rich tremendously prospered through the vision of President Calvin Coolidge. According to a study done by the Brookings Institute, in 1929 the top 0.1 percent of American families had a combined income equal to that of the bottom 42 percent. That same top 0.1 percent of Americans controlled 34 percent of all savings. The top 5 percent of American families received 30 percent of the nation's income and the bottom 60 percent got only 26 percent. Approximately 71 percent of American families had annual incomes below $2,500.
             As the cost of production fell quickly, wages rose slowly, prices remained constant, and jobs became fewer due to the lack of consumer spending. Due to the decline of consumer spending production cutbacks were made, which in turn caused consumers to have less to spend and the industries having to lay off their workers and reduce work hours. Many banks began to fail as well as anxious depositors withdrew their funds which were tied to the speculative bubble of Wall Street stock buying, and were also uninsured. Thousands of American families lost their savings due to these failures.
             The most powerful consequence of deepening depression was the massive unemployment across the United States. Th
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