Just finished John Kenneth Galbraith’s “The Great Crash 1929“, and, no (NO!), my resoundingly cautious tone of the past several months should not be construed as me anticipating the likes of the 1929 episode (remember, I’m only responding to present general conditions). That said, or, as George Santanaya once said (words to the effect); “Those Who Do Not Learn From History Are Doomed To Repeat It.”
The book’s parting words speak as accurately about today’s movers, shakers and policymakers as they did about the players of the time:
“Long-run salvation by men of business has never been highly regarded if it means disturbance of orderly life and convenience in the present. So inaction will be advocated in the present even though it means deep trouble in the future. Here, at least equally with communism, lies the threat to capitalism. It is what causes men who know that things are going quite wrong to say that things are fundamentally sound.”