230 The Stock Market Crash—And After 
Hatry in London, which was the signal for a reces- 
sion on the London Stock Exchange, followed by a 
decline on the Paris and Berlin Exchanges. 
The withdrawal of foreign funds was signalized 
by a rise in brokers’ loans in New York while the 
market was falling, which indicated that the with- 
drawal forced American borrowing to replace the 
funds exported. 
Panic Shrinkage of Brokers’ Loans 
However, this was the last influence that tended 
to work the brokers’ loan account upward. Thence- 
forward the weekly reports of the Federal Reserve 
Board recorded unprecedented declines. After the 
climb to $6,804,000,000, reported September 25 by 
the Federal Reserve Board, there was a shrinkage in 
the total by $2,440,559,111 during October. With 
the report of December 26th by the Federal Reserve 
Board, the account had declined to the lowest point 
since September 28, 1927. There had been a cut of 
$3,483,000,000, or more than 50 per cent. 
The foregoing analysis of Mr. Roberts is the best 
I know of regarding the factors of gold and credit. 
The essential points are: 
(1) After 1920, as a post-war and post-crisis 
reaction, gold accumulated in America, artificially 
depressing the short-time rates of interest in the 
money market, below the rates justified by under- 
lying economic conditions. 
(2) These low short-time rates contrasted sharply 
with the high yields on common stocks, the prices of