William Starr Myers and Walter H. Newton

To calm people's fears in the weeks after the 1929 stockmarket crash, nearly all of America's business, political, and economic leaders offered positive words about the strength of the U.S. economy. Never before have so many experts been so famously wrong. The U.S. economy was about to head into an unprecedented tailspin and the resulting Great Depression would not end for the majority of Americans until the beginning of World War II in 1942.

The following statements were compiled by Walter H. Newton, personal secretary to President Herbert Hoover. He was aided in his task by William Starr Myers, professor of politics at Princeton University.

The mental unpreparedness among business and economic leaders at the time of the stock crash and their disbelief in the realities of the situation are of interest...