For the Record

I'm 19 years old. In October 2007, I read 'The Great Crash: 1929.' In January, I posted this on my Facebook blog:

Another Great Depression, Maybe?

The stock market has lost a lot of value since the New Year. In only three other years since 1926 has it had such a decline. Meanwhile, the income of the top fraction of Americans is rising faster than in any other year, except in 1927 and 1928. Hedge funds, which sit on $20 trillion dollars of invested money, are wobbling because of their use of leverage - a financial strategy made famous by the "investment trusts" before the Great Crash. Downticks in manufacturing preceded the wholesale panic in late 1929; results from the Federal Reserve in Philadelphia, published yesterday, show manufacturing in decline. The housing market is bleeding the banks; for the first time since the Great Depression, America's major banks are losing money.