In the summer of 1907, the American economy was showing signs of weakness as a number of business and Wall Street brokerages went bankrupt. In October, the respected Knickerbocker Trust in New York City and the ¹Westinghouse Electric Company both failed, touching off a series of events known as the Panic of 1907.
In the wake of the initial business collapses, stock market prices plummeted and depositors made a massive run on the nation’s banks. The U.S. Treasury pumped millions of dollars into weak banks in the hope of saving them, but the string of collapsed institutions lengthened.
Sounds familiar.
Familiar, yes, so much so that it helped me figure out WHY the depression happened. And, if we solve the problem the same way they did in 1907, we’ll wind up with the same ending that came with the total economic collapse of the country in about 15 or so years. Hey, some bonus reading, and you’ll get a kick out of it too, check out Herbert Hoover on Wikipedia.