Suicide on Wall Street

The notion that men were jumping out of buildings after the collapse of the stock market in 1929 if mainly false. There were instances of major financiers committing suicide after the fact and then during the 30s there was a rise in the suicide rate from 14 to 17 per 100,000.

The WSJ had a very frank article yesterday in the Money section about a Bear, Stearns and Co Managing Director and a couple others that have committed suicide in the recent months. The article describes that the man came face to face with his greatest fear that, “Despite years of hard work, [he] still felt he had nothing to show for it.”