I read this book for a course that I am undertaking. I'm glad that I did.

It is hard to read this work without making comparisons to the present day: Galbraith lists five main causes for the crash and each has eerie echoes reverberating in the present day economic system. It seems that, as a species, we never learn, but are condemned to circle through our errors on a regular basis. ( )

Excellent book - subject is what people are ready to do in order to gain wealth and what happens when everything goes down the drain. I simplify the matter, I agree, but it is strange that exactly the same thing happened not so long ago (just read the section describing the way speculations rise up and cause the entire structure to collapse) - what, nobody read the book? Or did they think it was obsolete?

Highly recommended. ( )

La crisis económica y financiera de 1929 dio origen a la gran depresión de los años treinta. John Kenneth Galbraith nos presenta aquí una historia y un análisis de esos hechos, y desentraña los procesos y mecanismos que, desde los años del boominmobiliario de Florida hasta el desastroso otoño de 1929, alimentaron la fiebre especulativa y la ilusión del dinero fácil. Escrito con la intención de contribuir a que la historia no se repita, El crash de 1929borra la visión pintoresca y esteriotipada de los años negros como una histérica partida de ruleta jugada por todo un pueblo, y la sustituye por la nueva imagen, más real y esclarecedora, de una enfermedad social padecida por una pequeña minoría, y alimentada por otra aún más reducida, que llegó a afectar a las formas de cultura y de vida de una sociedad moderna.

Sadly it is apparent we haven't learned the lessons. ( )

The only imperfect thing about this book is that it's too short. I wanted more depth. Galbraith is witty and entertaining; I could have read an entire history of the depression in this vein.

Now unless there's a noted book on the Dutch tulip bubble or the South Seas bubble, I don't know what other economic catastrophe I have to read about this year. ( )