haven't we been here before?

[librarygrrl]

"On the giddy ride up, there had been no cop, no regulator to enforce basic rules of an American economy that had become the world's biggest casino.  Real estate in Florida, oil in Texas, wheat in Kansas, and stocks on Wall Street -- they had all had their time when gravity was willed into oblivion.  And the rules put in place on the way down, the tariffs and tighter money, only made the problem worse.  The consumer stopped consuming all but basics.  The depression was now global."

Timothy Egan
The Worst Hard time:
The Untold Story of Those Who Survived
the Great American Dust Bowl