Jason McCullough
09-06-2006, 08:19 PM
Surprisingly, the bit I'd recommend the most about Galbraith's The Great Crash (http://www.amazon.com/Great-Crash-John-Kenneth-Galbraith/dp/0395859999/sr=8-1/qid=1157598650/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-4630739-4723852?ie=UTF8&s=books) is that it's hilarious.
Observing this group as a whole Professor Dice was especially struck by their "vision for the future and boundless hope and optimism." He noted that "they did not come into the market hampered by the heavy armor of tradition." In recounting their effect on the market, Professor Dice obviously found the English language verging on inadequacy. "Led by these mighty knighst of the automobile industry, the steel industry, the radio industry..." he said," and finally joined, in despair, by many professional traders who, after much sack-cloth and ashes, had caught the vision of progress, the Coolidge market had gone forward like the phalanxes of Cyrus, parasang upon parasang and again parasang upon parasang..."
Referring to the November 7th "victory boom" in the market on Hoover's election:
Apart from the afterglow of the election, there was nothing particular to excite this enthusiasm. The headlines of the day told only of the sinking of the steamship Vestris and the epic achievements of the officers and crew in shouldering aside the women and children and saving their own lives. November 20 was another huge day.
Ok, maybe it's better in context.
Some other items of note:
* The shit-talking (release in 1950s) about cynical, politically opportunistic new dealers.
* The stylistic and discrediting-by-association analogies between the 1930s regulatory hunt for speculator crooks in the stock market by the new dealers, and the 1950s McCarthy hunt for commies.
* The combination of four items he specifically flags as making the general economy vulnerable to the stock crash: a decline in the housing market, booming productivity, flat wages for everyone but the rich, and enormous income concentration at the top.
* The amazing varied and numerous incantations of the "fundamentals are sound" mind-cure positive thinking line that got trotted out then - if we say the economy is fine, the economy will be fine! Clap louder! - and have been used in every decline since then.
Observing this group as a whole Professor Dice was especially struck by their "vision for the future and boundless hope and optimism." He noted that "they did not come into the market hampered by the heavy armor of tradition." In recounting their effect on the market, Professor Dice obviously found the English language verging on inadequacy. "Led by these mighty knighst of the automobile industry, the steel industry, the radio industry..." he said," and finally joined, in despair, by many professional traders who, after much sack-cloth and ashes, had caught the vision of progress, the Coolidge market had gone forward like the phalanxes of Cyrus, parasang upon parasang and again parasang upon parasang..."
Referring to the November 7th "victory boom" in the market on Hoover's election:
Apart from the afterglow of the election, there was nothing particular to excite this enthusiasm. The headlines of the day told only of the sinking of the steamship Vestris and the epic achievements of the officers and crew in shouldering aside the women and children and saving their own lives. November 20 was another huge day.
Ok, maybe it's better in context.
Some other items of note:
* The shit-talking (release in 1950s) about cynical, politically opportunistic new dealers.
* The stylistic and discrediting-by-association analogies between the 1930s regulatory hunt for speculator crooks in the stock market by the new dealers, and the 1950s McCarthy hunt for commies.
* The combination of four items he specifically flags as making the general economy vulnerable to the stock crash: a decline in the housing market, booming productivity, flat wages for everyone but the rich, and enormous income concentration at the top.
* The amazing varied and numerous incantations of the "fundamentals are sound" mind-cure positive thinking line that got trotted out then - if we say the economy is fine, the economy will be fine! Clap louder! - and have been used in every decline since then.