Vis comica - the power of humor.
Here are a few excerpts of the front page of The Onion, October 22th, 1929:STOCK MARKET INVINCIBLE`Buy, Buy, Buy!´ Experts Advise
Wall Street, Spirits Soaring
- U.S. Enjoying Embarrassment of Riches
- Even Immigrants Enjoying Measure of Comfort
- Citizen Urged to Put Everything They Have into Stock Market
NEW YORK, Oct. 21.-
[...] And stockbrokers are advising everyone to buy in big while the going is good.
"Everyone can partake of this soaring wealth," said Wall Street broker Robert Specht. "I would recommend that anyone put everything they have into the stock market. Borrow if you have to."
New `Easy Credit´ Delays Financial Catastrophes until 1930s
[...] Bankers now offer an increasingly popular system that removes the burden of fiscal responsibility from ourselves and defers it to ourselves but at a later date.
Persons wishing to make a purchase but lacking the capital can, instead, use "easy credit" to pay at a later time, say, the 1930s, when the necessary monies will exist.
[...] Merchants say that every American citizen qualifies for credit. He need only demonstrate his good will to pay off the debt in a "reasonable time" and have an ability to withstand a potential whirlpool of human poverty and despair.