A serialization on In The Big Money of the diary of Benjamin Roth, a lawyer for local businesses who lived through the Great Depression, there’s several entries with disturbing parallels to our present economic crisis. Here’s one:

July 30, 1931. Magazines and newspapers are full of articles telling people to buy stocks, real estate etc. at present bargain prices. They say that times are sure to get better and that many big fortunes have been built this way. The trouble is that nobody has any money.

Depression Diary [The Big Money]

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