zyzzyva57
11-15-2008, 05:38 PM
This is a fast pace read
I have found two business books that are fast pace reads: this book and Cramer’s “Confessions of a Wall Street Addict”
An excellent pre-read is the Wikipedia synopsis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Crash,_1929) of Galbraith book
10 things I did not know about the 1929 Depression I learned from the book:
1.In the wake of Black Thursday (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Thursday) London newspapers reported that ruined speculators were throwing themselves from windows but Galbraith asserts there was no substance to these claims of widespread suicides—Much like the meme (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme) today about increase gun sales (http://www.slate.com/id/2204592/?from=rss) since Obama’s election
2.Although Hoover is normally associated with the cause of the 1929 Depression, actually it was his predecessor who set it off with his superficial optimism, e.g., “Americans inordinate desire to get rich quick with a minimum of physical effort…Men and women had proceeded to build a world of speculative make-believe.”-- Florida
3.Florida land speculation in the 20's was the first warning of trouble: “However, in the spring of 1926, the supply of new buyers, began to fail”
4.The stock market then went up in leaps thanks to greed of the man-on-the-street led by professional traders—Yes, Virginia, there were Masters of the Universe even then
5.Hoover was elected president—he felt there was danger in over speculation, but initially, “his efforts were uniformly frustrated by Coolidge and the FED to translate his thoughts into action”
6.Investment Trusts were created—These were “black boxes” in that the common man put money in and got more money out—The innards of these “boxes” were kept secret, but the average Joe and Jane just knew they got much more money out than they put in, so who cared what was in these “boxes,” for after all, these boxes were created and ran by the Masters of the Universe
7.“The investment trusts, once considered a buttress of the high plateaus of the market and built-in defense against collapse of the markets, were really a profound source of weakness.”
8.When the market is humming along no one notices larceny and spooky accounting
9.So much of the stock market collapse, followed by The Great Depression, was a change in the mood of the people, which occurs unpredictably
10."The poor state of economic intelligence": Galbraith says that the "economists and those who offered economic counsel in the late twenties and early thirties were almost uniquely perverse" and that reputable economic advice was invariably on the sides steps that made things worse"—Today, there is the obverse: too much economic intelligence; no, actually, too much noise, e.g., go without daytime CNBC and see how much clearer the world seems—factoids (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factoids), memes, and 20/20 Talking Head’s blinding hind sights are not knowledge to moi!
This book is worth a read
Remember, you can do as I do: check the book out at the library; and if it does not have a copy, then get the library to borrow it from another library
I have found two business books that are fast pace reads: this book and Cramer’s “Confessions of a Wall Street Addict”
An excellent pre-read is the Wikipedia synopsis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Crash,_1929) of Galbraith book
10 things I did not know about the 1929 Depression I learned from the book:
1.In the wake of Black Thursday (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Thursday) London newspapers reported that ruined speculators were throwing themselves from windows but Galbraith asserts there was no substance to these claims of widespread suicides—Much like the meme (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme) today about increase gun sales (http://www.slate.com/id/2204592/?from=rss) since Obama’s election
2.Although Hoover is normally associated with the cause of the 1929 Depression, actually it was his predecessor who set it off with his superficial optimism, e.g., “Americans inordinate desire to get rich quick with a minimum of physical effort…Men and women had proceeded to build a world of speculative make-believe.”-- Florida
3.Florida land speculation in the 20's was the first warning of trouble: “However, in the spring of 1926, the supply of new buyers, began to fail”
4.The stock market then went up in leaps thanks to greed of the man-on-the-street led by professional traders—Yes, Virginia, there were Masters of the Universe even then
5.Hoover was elected president—he felt there was danger in over speculation, but initially, “his efforts were uniformly frustrated by Coolidge and the FED to translate his thoughts into action”
6.Investment Trusts were created—These were “black boxes” in that the common man put money in and got more money out—The innards of these “boxes” were kept secret, but the average Joe and Jane just knew they got much more money out than they put in, so who cared what was in these “boxes,” for after all, these boxes were created and ran by the Masters of the Universe
7.“The investment trusts, once considered a buttress of the high plateaus of the market and built-in defense against collapse of the markets, were really a profound source of weakness.”
8.When the market is humming along no one notices larceny and spooky accounting
9.So much of the stock market collapse, followed by The Great Depression, was a change in the mood of the people, which occurs unpredictably
10."The poor state of economic intelligence": Galbraith says that the "economists and those who offered economic counsel in the late twenties and early thirties were almost uniquely perverse" and that reputable economic advice was invariably on the sides steps that made things worse"—Today, there is the obverse: too much economic intelligence; no, actually, too much noise, e.g., go without daytime CNBC and see how much clearer the world seems—factoids (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factoids), memes, and 20/20 Talking Head’s blinding hind sights are not knowledge to moi!
This book is worth a read
Remember, you can do as I do: check the book out at the library; and if it does not have a copy, then get the library to borrow it from another library