[].3 The investment boom and the unfilled consumption vacuum
The hypothesis that the declines in residential construction and
automobile production in the fourth quarter of 1929 were reflecting the
satiation of the relevant markets leads us to a potential connection
between the industrial electrification boom and the initial phase of the
crisis which goes beyond the decline in investment in equipment in
itself. The table below provides a comparison between the annualized
major US GDP components for the third and fourth quarters of 1929.