Comments on: The Crash of 1929

By: bill750

bill750 — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 05:04:23 +0000

Hmmm… Our local PBS station had this on the schedule for 8pm CST, but actually ran a documentary about the Berlin Airlift. Ah well, at least the Airlift had a happy ending.

By: sellthekids

sellthekids — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 04:21:54 +0000

uh, wow.

i set TiVo to record it from work and had it waiting when i got home. just finished watching it. uh, wow. again.

this program was created in 1990. sure looks/feels like they made it in 2007. frightening.

so basically, as Galbraith said, we have one of these every 30 years or so. guess they come in flavors…is the one we’re experiencing now an “original” flavor or is it “new and improved”?

thanks for the reminder, Barry. gotta love PBS!

By: mddwave

mddwave — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:59:48 +0000

I like the simple analogy of the bubble as being a balloon. As one blows air (money) into the balloon, the balloon inflates being constrained by the rubber balloon. Once the balloon catastrophically pops, any additional air (money) blown into the balloon will only make a funny noise. The FED is fooling themselves. Their tools (easy money) can’t fix the catastrohpic failure of the whole system.

By: constantnormal

constantnormal — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:31:21 +0000

I’m looking through Galbraith’s book for the chapter on “How to make money during a depression” — but I guess I must have the abridged edition, as there doesn’t seem to be one.

By: DL

DL — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:50:20 +0000

From 1929-1932 the Dow fell about 90%.

Many believe that this could not happen again. Yet it did. During the period from 1966-1982, the decline in the Dow, IN INFLATION ADJUSTED TERMS, was comparable to the decline of ’29-’32.
Then of course you’ve got the situation in Japan.

The point is that the stock market decline of ’29-’32 may not be quite the anomaly that many consider it to be.

By: Winston Munn

Winston Munn — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:45:48 +0000

“It’s not a depression – it’s an economic slowdown.” – Herbert Hoover

By: Arca

Arca — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:35:33 +0000

hey, can someone record this today, i’m not at home when it’s on tv.
thanks.

By: leftback

leftback — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:31:16 +0000

No fractals before 4 o’clock, please, Mark.
Some of us are not mathematically sophisticated.

I am enjoying analyst price targets of zero.
This from a group with zero credibility.
Zero interest rates. Zero credit.
The zero hour approaches…

By: babycondor

babycondor — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:23:26 +0000

The Fractal Depression of 2010: by the time it was declared, it was over.

By: KJ Foehr

KJ Foehr — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:04:27 +0000

Tony Crescenzi on Squawk Box this AM talked about the total public and private debt that is now about 3.5 times GDP, whereas it was about only 2.5 during the ‘30s. Thus serious deleveraging will be in order for a long time and suggests that we may indeed be in for some kind of depression like scenario.

But Roubini replied that the public portion of the debt was still not problematic and that we could absorb a couple trillion more to help us through the recession without serious consequences – although China and others, who will be spending much more on their on economies, will probably demand higher interest rates to fund our treasury borrowing.

Roubini also said the important thing now was to provide debt relief to the private sector such as face value reduction of mortgages to allow people to stay in their homes as was done in the GD via the Home Owner’s Loan Corp.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HOLC

What a fool I am: Why, oh why didn’t I buy that new house that I couldn’t afford when I had the chance to get it with no money down?