The 1920s were an economic boom. After the downfall during the war, the United States elected Warren G. Harding as the new president, with hopes of returning to an economic country. By 1922, this was successful, and products were made in abundance. The assembly line and interchangeable parts made products easier to make and less expensive. Also, new products like telephones and automobiles were more accessible thanks to advances in technology, and everyone seemed to have them. By 1929, 1 in 5 Americans owned a car, a record at the time. Chain stores started popping up all over the United States, allowing goods to be sold at much cheaper prices than the locally owned businesses. With the creation of credit, people could buy all of these new products without actually having to afford them. On credit, people could buy the goods for only a portion of the price, and then pay the rest back in pieces.

Another phenomenon of the 1920s was the Stock Market. Because of the rise of big businesses in the late 1800s, they needed to find a way in order to keep the businesses running. The result of this was the Stock Market, where people could buy stocks, or parts of companies, which allowed them to have a say in what the company used their money for. The Stock Market was a fad, and everyone, even the most naïve, invested in it. Most people bought their stocks 'on margin', which was like buying them on credit. They would pay their broker only a portion of what the stocks were worth, and he would pay the rest. The brokers wanted more customers so that they too could make more profit, so they in turn borrowed money from the bank so that the customer could buy whatever stocks that he or she wanted. Then when the stock prices would go up, the customer could sell the stocks and repay their broker while keeping the profits for themselves. The only downfall to this was if the stock prices kept going down, in which case people wouldn't be able to pay off their broker and they would have to find more money to repay him, who would in turn not be able to pay back the bank. There was a lot of risk in this, but that was what people loved about it, especially in this new decade that was all about change. For a long time, the stock prices continually rose, higher and higher. Despite the skeptics of some of the brokers, many people thought that there was no possibility that the Stock Market would crash. They kept buying new stocks, making the prices rise even more. There was no end to this boom it seemed. Even though people could sell their stocks and get good profits, they were sure the stocks would keep rising in value, so they didn't sell them. The radio also helped people get closer to the Stock Market, and many radio stations provided the ups and downs of stocks on their radio stations.

On November 15, 1925, Alexander D. Noyes, a respected financial journalist published a persuasive article comparing the 1920s boom to that of other decades where it ended in disaster. Few people heeded his advice and just kept their dreams of quick cash. The policy "laissez-faire" (which translates roughly to "let things be" in French) made it so that the government couldn't intervene with the Stock Market. However, when the stock market rose to a huge peak in 1929, the Federal Reserve Board started to meet regularly, and one of the main topics of discussion was the Stock Market dilemma. March 25, 1929 marked the first of many small crashes of the Stock Market. These lead all the way into summer, and people panicked. However they held onto their stocks, hoping that they would rise in price again. By the end of August, the market seemed stable again and people went about buying stocks again, although with a certain nervousness. The crash began on Thursday, October 24, 1929. However, by that afternoon and the following day, the prices had climbed up almost back to regain their losses. Finally, the whole Stock Market gave way. It started on October 29, afterwards known as "Black Tuesday" and the prices reached an ultimate low that Thursday. By 1932, the Dow-Jones had fallen over 89% from its peak in 1929. This crash was the cause of many bankruptcies and losses of jobs. This led into the 30s, known as the Great Depression.