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When to Buy and Sell in Today’s Markets - Copyright 1938 (Sound Familiar?)
Book by this name, published in 1938 ^ | 1938 | John Durand

Posted on 06/26/2009 8:58:21 AM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion

Timing: When to Buy and Sell in Today’s Markets, by John Durand, Copyright 1938.

Forward

There are only two kinds of economic systems. In one, private initiative, however circumscribed, is the dominant force. In the other the State is master.

In the year 1929 the American capitalist system seemed secure. Capping a long record of high achievement, it had produced our greatest era of prosperity. It appeared to be a “sound” prosperity—until the dream suddenly blew up before our startled eyes.

Then came nearly three years of grinding deflation and rising unrest, out of which was born the political overturn of 1932. A frightened and despairing people turned to the Federal Government for economic guidance.

The New Deal Government had no coherent plan at hand for remaking our economic and social order. Its instinctive leanings were to the Left, but the election had given no mandate on a clear-cut issue between capitalism and collectivism. The people wanted economic improvement and security against a repetition of disaster. They had no composite opinion as to methods.

The Government turned promptly to inflationary measures, threw the full force of its credit into the breach and began launching a series of hastily improvised reforms. For more than three years it pumped deficit-financed purchasing power into the economic system at a rate of some $4,000,000,000 a year.

Throughout that period it was the assumption of the New Dealers and of a majority of the American people that the measures taken were guiding us toward some kind of a modified, reformed and regulated capitalist syste — neither the pre-1929 capitalist system nor full collectivism, but a democratic compromise between the two.

It was further assumed that this modified system would take over and carry on economic expansion when the time came for tapering off Federal “reflation.”

That time came late in 1936. The Government turned its emphasis from stimulation to control. It believed we were on the verge of a private credit boom, although up to that time the Government itself had been the sole expander of bank credit and private loans had actually declined. Nevertheless, the brakes were set against potential private credit expansion, and the President took public issue with the validity of prevailing price levels.

What followed is painful history now familiar to all. By the fourth quarter of 1937 we were skidding down in the fasted depression of all time. The prestige of political “monetary management” and “economic planning” had suffered a major blow. It became clear that the 1933-1937 recovery cycle was the temporary creation of New Deal spending; that our modified and reformed capitalism was not prepared to carry on when the oxygen of Federal pump-priming was cut off; and that in reality the New Deal had succeeded in paralyzing our former capitalist system without at the same time establishing any effective substitute for it.

This brief record is of vital significance to the investor, for the trends therein sketched inevitably imply that 1938 and 1939 will be years of politico-economic transition vastly affecting the future of American business, of profits, of values.

Within the space of seven years we have had a depression under private management and a depression under government management.

To what will we turn now?


TOPICS: Business/Economy; History
KEYWORDS: depression; economy; fdr; greatdepression; newdeal; socialism; stocks
Published in 1938 - how familiar it all is today! No learning from history by the current occupant. Note the comment that there were 4 years of recovery before it all tanked... ensuring reelection of the Zero.

ampu

1 posted on 06/26/2009 8:58:22 AM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

The real question is, “In which war will we involve ourselves to distract the people from their economic problems and also thin the herd of hotheads?”


2 posted on 06/26/2009 9:01:44 AM PDT by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin (Freedom is the freedom to discipline yourself so others don't have to do it for you.)
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

Well, we do have a source of information today that was not available in 1938, namely the internet. The internet will ensure that the MSM, which was as much in the tank for FDR as it today is for Zero, will not be America’s sole source of information.


3 posted on 06/26/2009 9:11:05 AM PDT by RightWingConspirator (Impeach Zerobama and send him back to his land of birth, Kenya!)
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To: TigerLikesRooster

Ping


4 posted on 06/26/2009 9:44:57 AM PDT by EdReform (The right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed *NRA*JPFO*SAF*GOA*SAS*CCRKBA)
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To: RightWingConspirator
The Internet should insure that the time elapsed between the onset of bad policy and its demise is shortened. Conditions on the ground, however, may not remain level.
If 0 is successful with his efforts to skew the census and corrupt the voting system we could see landslides for the democrats into the foreseeable future. That would create a greater likelihood of violent revolution.
I agree that instantaneous dissemination of information is creating something closer to real time public attitude shifts. The MSM remains the major stumbling block to objective information dissemination. Overcoming this requires a no holds barred war against elitists of all shapes and sizes.
For so long as a small cadre of self appointed intellectuals are allowed to dominate public policy and the press we will not have a government of the people. The only way to overcome rule by elitists is for the general public to be well informed.
Much more work needs to be done to overcome the malaise of the uninformed. The only proof required is the certain knowledge that an informed electorate could never have elected 0.
5 posted on 06/26/2009 11:06:30 AM PDT by Louis Foxwell (0 is the son of soulless slavers, not the son of soulful slaves.)
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