The History of Financial Panics By Martin A. Armstrong
Throughout time, the economy of mankind has swung back and forth
between some fantastic periods of prosperity and deep dark
depressions. It is our failure to understand this mechanism that
often drives the politics of the world also between two extremes
of totalitarian regimes and communism to periods of
enlightenment and democracy. What is most misunderstood is that
the economic swings between two extremes are the source of
progress itself. For example, the devastation of OPEC, which
forced crude oil prices sharply high during the 1970s, sparked a
steep recession and a 40% decline in the stock market while it
unleashed a new wave of innovation to find alternative energy
sources. Despite the Industrial Revolution, 40% of the civil
work force was still employed in agriculture in 1929. As
horrible as the Great Depression was with unemployment rising to
25%, this economic disaster forced labour off the farm and into
the manufacturing-base where it began to a