Deja Vu all over again?

[On Our own]

I don't know about you guys but some of these quotes seem eerily familiar!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Colin J Seymour
1. "We will not have any more crashes in our time."
- John Maynard Keynes in 1927

2. "I cannot help but raise a dissenting voice to statements that we are living in a fool's paradise, and that prosperity in this country must necessarily diminish and recede in the near future."
- E. H. H. Simmons, President, New York Stock Exchange, January 12, 1928

"There will be no interruption of our permanent prosperity."
- Myron E. Forbes, President, Pierce Arrow Motor Car Co., January 12, 1928

3. "No Congress of the United States ever assembled, on surveying the state of the Union, has met with a more pleasing prospect than that which appears at the present time. In the domestic field there is tranquility and contentment...and the highest record of years of prosperity. In the foreign field there is peace, the goodwill which comes from mutual understanding."
- Calvin Coolidge December 4, 1928

4. "There may be a recession in stock prices, but not anything in the nature of a crash."
- Irving Fisher, leading U.S. economist , New York Times, Sept. 5, 1929

5. "Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau. I do not feel there will be soon if ever a 50 or 60 point break from present levels, such as (bears) have predicted. I expect to see the stock market a good deal higher within a few months."
- Irving Fisher, Ph.D. in economics, Oct. 17, 1929

"This crash is not going to have much effect on business."
- Arthur Reynolds, Chairman of Continental Illinois Bank of Chicago, October 24, 1929

"There will be no repetition of the break of yesterday... I have no fear of another comparable decline."
- Arthur W. Loasby (President of the Equitable Trust Company), quoted in NYT, Friday, October 25, 1929

"We feel that fundamentally Wall Street is sound, and that for people who can afford to pay for them outright, good stocks are cheap at these prices."
- Goodbody and Company market-letter quoted in The New York Times, Friday, October 25, 1929

6. "This is the time to buy stocks. This is the time to recall the words of the late J. P. Morgan... that any man who is bearish on America will go broke. Within a few days there is likely to be a bear panic rather than a bull panic. Many of the low prices as a result of this hysterical selling are not likely to be reached again in many years."
- R. W. McNeel, market analyst, as quoted in the New York Herald Tribune, October 30, 1929

"Buying of sound, seasoned issues now will not be regretted"
- E. A. Pearce market letter quoted in the New York Herald Tribune, October 30, 1929

"Some pretty intelligent people are now buying stocks... Unless we are to have a panic -- which no one seriously believes, stocks have hit bottom."
- R. W. McNeal, financial analyst in October 1929

7. "The decline is in paper values, not in tangible goods and services...America is now in the eighth year of prosperity as commercially defined. The former great periods of prosperity in America averaged eleven years. On this basis we now have three more years to go before the tailspin."
- Stuart Chase (American economist and author), NY Herald Tribune, November 1, 1929

"Hysteria has now disappeared from Wall Street."
- The Times of London, November 2, 1929

"The Wall Street crash doesn't mean that there will be any general or serious business depression... For six years American business has been diverting a substantial part of its attention, its energies and its resources on the speculative game... Now that irrelevant, alien and hazardous adventure is over. Business has come home again, back to its job, providentially unscathed, sound in wind and limb, financially stronger than ever before."
- Business Week, November 2, 1929

"...despite its severity, we believe that the slump in stock prices will prove an intermediate movement and not the precursor of a business depression such as would entail prolonged further liquidation..."
- Harvard Economic Society (HES), November 2, 1929

8. "... a serious depression seems improbable; [we expect] recovery of business next spring, with further improvement in the fall."
- HES, November 10, 1929

"The end of the decline of the Stock Market will probably not be long, only a few more days at most."
- Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics at Yale University, November 14, 1929

"In most of the cities and towns of this country, this Wall Street panic will have no effect."
- Paul Block (President of the Block newspaper chain), editorial, November 15, 1929

"Financial storm definitely passed."
- Bernard Baruch, cablegram to Winston Churchill, November 15, 1929

9. "I see nothing in the present situation that is either menacing or warrants pessimism... I have every confidence that there will be a revival of activity in the spring, and that during this coming year the country will make steady progress."
- Andrew W. Mellon, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury December 31, 1929

"I am convinced that through these measures we have reestablished confidence."
- Herbert Hoover, December 1929

"[1930 will be] a splendid employment year."
- U.S. Dept. of Labor, New Year's Forecast, December 1929

10. "For the immediate future, at least, the outlook (stocks) is bright."
- Irving Fisher, Ph.D. in Economics, in early 1930

11. "...there are indications that the severest phase of the recession is over..."
- Harvard Economic Society (HES) Jan 18, 1930

12. "There is nothing in the situation to be disturbed about."
- Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, Feb 1930

13. "The spring of 1930 marks the end of a period of grave concern...American business is steadily coming back to a normal level of prosperity."
- Julius Barnes, head of Hoover's National Business Survey Conference, Mar 16, 1930

"... the outlook continues favorable..."
- HES Mar 29, 1930

14. "... the outlook is favorable..."
- HES Apr 19, 1930

15. "While the crash only took place six months ago, I am convinced we have now passed through the worst -- and with continued unity of effort we shall rapidly recover. There has been no significant bank or industrial failure. That danger, too, is safely behind us."
- Herbert Hoover, President of the United States, May 1, 1930

"...by May or June the spring recovery forecast in our letters of last December and November should clearly be apparent..."
- HES May 17, 1930

"Gentleman, you have come sixty days too late. The depression is over."
- Herbert Hoover, responding to a delegation requesting a public works program to help speed the recovery, June 1930

16. "... irregular and conflicting movements of business should soon give way to a sustained recovery..."
- HES June 28, 1930

17. "... the present depression has about spent its force..."
- HES, Aug 30, 1930

18. "We are now near the end of the declining phase of the depression."
- HES Nov 15, 1930

19. "Stabilization at [present] levels is clearly possible."
- HES Oct 31, 1931

20. "All safe deposit boxes in banks or financial institutions have been sealed... and may only be opened in the presence of an agent of the I.R.S."
- President F.D. Roosevelt, 1933

Colin J. Seymour, June 2001
http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~netking
20 June 2001

I think we're right about number 13 right about now??

 

[Beekissed]

I think you are right. It always amazes me the great number of people who think America is indestructible. Its like whistling in the dark...if we say it won't happen, well, darn it, it just won't happen. Its all about attitude and staying positive! Fearmongering is the by-product of an ignorant, uninformed public..blah, blah, blah!

Sort of the like the captain of the Titanic.....

 

[Mackay]

20. "All safe deposit boxes in banks or financial institutions have been sealed... and may only be opened in the presence of an agent of the I.R.S."
- President F.D. Roosevelt, 1933

Is this true? Thats pretty creepy. My husband wanted to get a safe but I kept saying why cause my bank offers me a free safe deposit box....maybe his right.

 

[Wifezilla]

Well, you already have the state of California giving IOU's instead of tax refund checks.

I agree with your husband. Get a safe. Politician don't see your money and valuables as YOURS.

 

[On Our own]

20. "All safe deposit boxes in banks or financial institutions have been sealed... and may only be opened in the presence of an agent of the I.R.S."
- President F.D. Roosevelt, 1933

Is this true? Thats pretty creepy. My husband wanted to get a safe but I kept saying why cause my bank offers me a free safe deposit box....maybe his right.

Yep! Really happened! At that point in time the majority of safe deposits deposit boxes were held by the bakers and wall street types themselves. The monetary system was still backed by gold and many had begun to hoard tangible gold in the late summer months. Franklin did something that no one would be able to pull off now: he confiscated all of the gold and paid people in what was practically worthless cash.

He did it to rescue the value of the dollar internationally as well as at home, but it was a drastic measure indeed. So far Obama has said with a fiat dollar there is nothing like this to do..... so he isn't even considering anything like it so don't get all freaked out.

 

[Tallman]

So far Obama has said with a fiat dollar there is nothing like this to do..... so he isn't even considering anything like it so don't get all freaked out.

When D.C. says that they are not going to do something, I have found that that has nothing to do with what they will or will not do.

I think that doing what FDR did would be easier to do today than it was back then. Just my opinion.

 

[On Our own]

I am not sure I follow what you mean.... I need to get off the computer, but could you tell me how and why he would confiscate safety deposit boxes?? Since there is no gold standard anymore what would he gain for the incredibly political and international instability it could cause??

Besides I don't think the banks would go for it.....

 

[Tallman]

I am not sure I follow what you mean.... I need to get off the computer, but could you tell me how and why he would confiscate safety deposit boxes?? Since there is no gold standard anymore what would he gain for the incredibly political and international instability it could cause??

Besides I don't think the banks would go for it.....

In simple terms, I don't trust these people. If Obama says that he is not going to do something, I just believe that the opposite is the truth of the matter. I hope I am wrong!

Gold is a non traceable asset. In other words, if you buy $10,000 worth of gold and it goes up to $20,000 in value and you sell it, there is no paper trail so the government is left out of the loop. Unless the owner of the gold puts the transaction on his/her tax statement, the IRS would have no paper trail to show that the gain was ever made. The same can be said for diamonds. With the money that is being spent in D.C. these days, in the future the government is going to tax everything that they can get their hands on. They are going to have to tax things of value, and where is a lot of this type of value kept?

As far as the bankers not going for it, due to the bailout they are getting stuck with all kinds of government involvement.

 

[Big Daddy]

Paranoia level is real high on this forum.

 

[On Our own]

The number of people who actually hold physical gold is relatively small.

Not that many people do not - it is just a small percentage of those who own gold. Gold bullion dealers trade across international lines on a regular basis and they do not ship the material......

I don't trust Washington as far as I can throw anyone of the whole lot, but I don't trust bankers any more than I trust politicians.

What I do trust is the average Americans apathy and ignorance. Things will roll along.... not too much better but not apocolyptically worse either.