Archive for December, 2008

Wall Street 1929 Part 4

In Paris a banker announces that America, because it controls the world’s wealth, must become the center of world culture, its opulent patron. In Texas, an oil man, recouping $25,000,000 that Wall Street took away from him five years ago, serves notice he is through with the market forever. And one of my friends, a [...]

Wall Street 1929 Part 3

PROSPERITY is the match-maker that inspired this mating which, twenty years ago, would have been damned as miscegenation. When the World War ended, you and I and our neighbor heard considerable talk about this singular quality. It seemed to be something intrinsically American. It stood for money in the pocket—in the bank. And we were [...]

Wall Street 1929 Part 2

Today Wall Street is the nation and Main Street is more Wall Street than Wall Street ever was—or probably ever will be. Wall Street is a state of mind; 20,000,000 men and women—investors and speculators—are its corporeal being; and the chattering tape that runs under the glass domes of 12, 000 tickers, up hill and [...]

Wall Street 1929 Part 1

HOW quickly indeed do we lose the feverish faiths and passions of our fathers. The memory of the average American is short, and shorter still the span of his conscience. In this it would seem he differs quite sensibly from the elephant. His capac-ity for sustained hatred is very largely modified by its immediate convenience.
We [...]