The Great Depression: A Diary - Benjamin Roth

[ACooke]

Almost through this one - truly fascinating.

 

Essentially as the title suggests it's a diary from ~1930 through ~1940 America from the viewpoint of a small business owner - a lawyer - who's keenly interested (and very intelligible) in the securities markets, business, economic policy and politics of the time. Very intriguing to hear him think through what might be best practises for the time and forecast what he believes is to come, all the whilst real estate is being repossessed but unable to be moved on from bank's balance sheets, causing banks to close their doors. The world is bouncing between deflationary and inflationary scares, war and poverty, and whiplashing securities markets. 

 

Fascinating as to how brutal the period was. A lot of stuff can be related to today but most is difficult to imagine happening *here* again (at least for me).