Sun 2008-07-06 00:00 EDT
Jesse's Café Américain: Lessons from the Panic of 1907
Jesse's Café Américain: Lessons from the Panic of 1907: "almost all panics and crashes are preceded by sustained periods of artificial growth, not based on improvements in productivity, but by a false expansion in the money system, aided and abetted by speculators and financiers." "almost all panics and crashes involves relatively small groups of people who seem to be at the heart of the matter, and are closely interlinked into small cartels of corrupted self-dealing, involving the accumulation of enormous personal fortunes." "always the overextension of credit and excessive leverage" "A free and just society is not a prize to be won or a gift that can be bestowed; it is a recurring commitment, an enduring obligation."