The Crash of 1929 Although the Prohibition controversy was absorbing, public interest in the first year of the Hoover administration became diverted by an event that shook the very economic foundations of the nation, namely, the stock market panic of 1929. The United States had enjoyed a boom after World War I, in which wages were high and production and consumption increased. During this period many had developed a tendency to invest savings and earnings in speculative ventures, particularly the buying of stocks on margin-putting up as little as 3 percent of a stock's price in cash and borrowing the remainder from the broker. The booming demand for stocks and the prosperous state