Parallels

We just watched episode five of Ric Burns’ epic New York documentary (Amazon). This episode was primarily about the buildup to the 1929 stock market crash.

This was produced in 1999, but I swear it could have been made last month, explaining our current financial problems. It’s creepy how much it applies to today — how we made the exact same mistakes to lead ourselves into this.

Plenty of smart people have declared promising things about this recession, saying that it won’t be “as bad” as the Great Depression because we have so many protections in place and the government is responding differently. Let’s hope they’re correct about that. But what led us here in the first place is strikingly similar to the conditions that led to the 1929 crash — something that far too few people were able to step back and see until it was too late. 

(via Marco)