Even when the market seriously fumbled in the fall of 1929, many saw it as a possibly positive event. John Maynard Keynes noted that Black Thursday was a promising mishap to hopefully cleanse the system from speculative to productive uses. Herbert Hoover said in the autumn of 1929, "The fundamental business of the country, that is, production and distribution of commodities, is on a sound and prosperous basis."
In 1930 the New York Times cited the biggest event in 1929 was Admiral Byrd's expedition to the South Pole.
The Great Depression did not fully devastate the country until a few years after the Black Thursday; after all, less than 2.5% of the population owned stocks at the time.
source: David M. Kennedy, Freedom from Fear
