In 1930, They Didn't Know It Was "The Great Depression" Yet

[jtuck004]

Some really interesting articles from 1930. The market had crashed, but the Fed had promised liquidity, and by the Autumn of 1930, despite a 40% fall in the market, not a single major bank had failed. (from "13 Bankers", Johnson and Kwak).

I find it interesting to listen to the advisors on CNBC these mornings touting their great buys, that this is a great time to get in. This article shows they were saying the same things in 1930. Are we going down a similar road? No one know.

Though one should remember...

"Anyone who bought stocks in mid-1929 and held onto them saw most of his or her adult life pass by before getting back to even.”
—Richard M. SalsmanWikipedia

There are some very interesting pics in this as well...and to credit her, I think I saw this on http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/ first.


Posting here...

[closeupready]

1. The problem with stocks, IMO, is their prices are more likely to be manipulated now.

Since the business media seems to be in cahoots with investment bankers/hedge fund managers.

Those at the top have bucketloads of money they can now use to buy cheap stocks, and then 'pump and dump' them, on a large scale, using their contacts in the business media (unwittingly).

Maybe I'm just really cynical, but I wouldn't buy stocks in this kind of corrupt oligarchic environment.

[TransitJohn]

2. High frequency trading, too.

Makes the whole thing seem very suspect, at least.

[jxnmsdemguy65]

5. Amen!

That is the best, most succinct analysis of the stock market I've read in years!

[closeupready]

6. I'm sure someone in finance will be along shortly to obfuscate and obscure.

:rofl: But yeah, that's the stock market in a nutshell. ;)

[northernlights]

7. what makes you think "unwittingly?"

also don't forget to add in the elites "special" after hours trading and computerized trading. Ordinary folks don't stand a chance...

[closeupready]

8. I actually added that word in at the last minute.

Frankly, my opinion is most of these people are too fucking smart not to smell hijinks, but they are rewarded so well that they play dumb, ask softballs, etc.

[xchrom]

3. recommend

[ixion]

4. Similar, but this time the path we face is much worse

and will make the GD look like the roaring 20's, IMO.

[sendero]

9. It all sounds familiar..

.. doesn't it?

[jtuck004]

10. It's eery to read this stuff, and compare it with what is in the financial

press today. The details are different, but the sales pitch, and the outlook which belies the condition of many of the people, is much the same.

[pscot]

11. The by extension

Obama=Hoover. Oh my.

[northernlights]

12. I read an interesting article on Hoover last year

and comparing Obama to him. I can't for the life of me remember where. But it said essentially that Hoover's real problem was that he was not of the "elite" class and so was somewaht intimidated by them. That much of what Roosevelt put into place was what Hoover had wanted but been unable to do. Roosevelt came from the "elite" and as one of them felt perfectly free to slam them straight up.

When you start out on the lower and middle rungs, out of necessity to you make a habit of keeping your head down, going along to get along, making yourself fit in with your "betters." It becomes so ingrained that when the chips are down, you aren't able to step out of that role and up to the plate. You've forgotten how. The article made a lot of sense and it went a long way toward explaining Obama's ingratiating (toward TPTB) behavior.

[winslowd]

13. I often wonder

A alarming number of people I run into act as though there isnt even the slightest slump in the economy. Ignorance is bliss?

[jtuck004]

14. There's a book out there called "Who Moved My Cheese".

It's tells the story of what happens to a few mice when their food source disappears, and their reactions to it, but it's a parable, of course, about how people react to big changes in their lives.

One of the mice just can't come to grips with the fact that he needs to do something different because this is a much larger change than anything he has ever experienced, and it is really debilitating for him.

I see what you are describing as well, and I am afraid that it would take a huge, major disaster to shock people out of their complacency and sense that "better" is just around the corner, while the water is slowly moving up past their neck. And even then, many, I think, will just sit there, staring at what was.

[AnneD]

15. If you look at the graphs of the Stock Market....

during the Depression, you notice it did not fall all at once like you are lead to believe. I am convinced that we are in a Depression and we haven't found the bottom yet. Wealth is being extracted from the middle class and those without financial intelligence and common sense will be victims. All the rest is useless happy talk. The economist may have the luxury of sitting around and being surprised-but I don't.