Wall Street Lays An Egg Wall Street Lays An Egg Wall Street Lays An Egg describes a headline printed in "Variety", a newspaper covering Hollywood and the entertainment industry, on October 30, 1929, over an article describing Black Tuesday, the height of the panic known as the Wall Street Crash of 1929 (the actual headline text was WALL ST. LAYS AN EGG). It is one of the most famous headlines ever to appear in an American publication and continues to be noted in history books into the 21st century. "Laying an egg" is an American idiom, current particularly in 20th century show business, meaning "failing
Wall Street the United States" if one factored in the $50 billion fraud perpetrated by Bernie Madoff. When large firms such as Enron, WorldCom and Global Crossing were found guilty of fraud, Wall Street was often blamed, even though these firms had headquarters around the nation and not in Wall Street. Many complained that the resulting Sarbanes-Oxley legislation dampened the business climate with regulations that were "overly burdensome". Interest groups seeking favor with Washington lawmakers, such as car dealers, have often sought to portray their interests as allied with "Main Street" rather than "Wall Street", although analyst Peter Overby on "National Public