Later today, but 80 years ago, a crowd of people will have gathered around the New York Stock Exchange building, many undoubtedly in a state of shock, trying to come to terms with what remains the most devastating stock market collapse in history.  Commonly known as 'black Tuesday', the 1929 stock market crash saw – on that day alone – the NYSE lose 14 billion dollars in value.  And though there is some debate about the actual starting point, many peg 'Black Tuesday' as the beginning of the 'great depression' that gripped the world through the 1930's.  And while the stock market eventually recovered and plans were put in motion to revive economies, it really wasn't until the outbreak of World War 2, and the subsequent industrial production, that the US and other economies around the world bounced back to normal.  And while comparisons can be made to the global economic downturn we've experienced over the past year, the devastation the 'great depression' brought cannot compare.  So what were the underlying issues that created 'black Tuesday'? And have we learned the lessons from what took place 80 years ago?

Ni hao, you're listening to  People In the Know, your window into the world around you, online at crienglish.com here on China Radio International.  In this edition of the show we're talking about the 80th anniversary of 'black Tuesday'.

First let's hear from an economic historian in the United States.  Professor Gavin Wright is with the Department of Economics at Stanford University. For more on this from the Chinese perspective we're joined on the line now by Wang Rongjun, Economics Research Associate with the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.