Improvements.

The weeks following the crash were surprisingly quiet. After the tumult died down, brokers directed their efforts to cleaning up the debris and bringing records up to date. To their surprise things looked better in many ways than they had expected. Although huge blocks of stock had been thrown onto the market willy-nilly, much of this stock was perfectly sound. It had been driven upward to artificially high levels by the bull market, and now it was artificially depressed by panic selling. When John D. Rockefeller Sr. announced that he and his sons were buying good common stocks, there were shouts of derision, and comedian Eddie Cantor responded, "Sure, who else has any money?"

Bargains and Wariness.

But Rockefeller was right. Bargains were available, and although it might take weeks or months, the sound issues would rise. GM...