If the vast majority of Americans were not investing money in the stock market, then why did its precipitous decline still impact (often ruinously) the finances of so many average Americans? Group of answer choices Because the economic elite lost confidence in the economy and refused to invest. Because the banks were allowed to play the stock market "on the margin" and stood to lose millions of their depositers' money. Because the price of gold (upon which the value of the dollar was pegged) plummeted. Because the federal and state governments had to raise taxes to pay for services that stock market taxes had paid for previously