O N M I N D I N G Y O U R O W N

B U S I N E S S

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American business today is paying too much attention of the wrong kind to

the stock market. In the past few years speculation in securities has become a

national business obsession. Not only has it made business men waste a lot of

time and energy they owe and might more profitably devote to their own

business responsibilities. What is more serious is that this speculative complex

has grossly distorted the views of the business community and a large part of the

general public regarding the nature and conditions of economic prosperity and

progress in this country.

At this time it is especially deplorable that such exaggerated emphasis should

be placed upon what is going on in Wall Street. There is no reason why business

or the government should act at any time as though security trading or security

values are of paramount importance in our economic life.

The business situation in the United States or any other country is not made or

destroyed by conditions in the security market. Prosperity does not depend

upon the price of stocks. Progress is not measured by the volume of securities

floated or sunk or the amount of money that changes hands in buying and

selling them.

Fundamental conditions of business itself—the creation and exchange of

useful goods and services, the advancement of industrial science, the efficiency

of business management, the wise use of credit, the expanding employment of

labor—in the end determine conditions in the security market. These things are

the chief concern of everybody. Upon them alone the general welfare depends.

In face of violent vituperation and political pressure, the Federal Reserve

System has done the nation a great service by resolutely and steadfastly

conserving the credit resources of our banking structure so that the universal

and permanent interests of American business as a whole shall be protected.

Security trading is a large, legitimate and necessary business, but it is only a

part, and a relatively small part, of the vast aggregate of American economic

activity. There are many others much larger, much more important, and quite

as exciting—such as mining the world’s coal, making its iron and steel,

manufacturing its clothing, raising its food, transporting and distributing the

goods it needs. These are the basis of business here and everywhere. Without

them the stock market is merely a game of tiddledywinks, and security prices

are simply statistical sawdust.

If business will mind its own business, the security market will take care of

itself.

Source: “On Minding Your Own Business,” from the New York Times,

October 28, 1929. Copyright © 1929 by the New York Times Company.

Reprinted by permission of the New York Times.