1930 Flashbacks

TW: There is a site for everything on the web. Have come across one that summarizes the Wall Street Journal day by corresponding day for 1930. I like historical snapshots of contemporary media. They can be instructive, these are from June, 1930.

From http://newsfrom1930.blogspot.com/:
"Market students have been encouraged by the general gloom for the past two weeks. This contrasts with the “new era” thinking of last summer when no end was seen to the rise in stock prices and margin debt was hitting a record every week. History says the current gloom is just as mistaken as last summer's unjustified optimism. Historically there has been no case in this country since 1900 when business failed to turn upward the year following a [recession].

Harvard Economics Society says the recent market weakness reflects pessimism and uncertainty, but sees no change in the fundamentals, forecasts “an early improvement in business.”

Miami's population grows from 29,571 in 1920 to 110,025 in 1930

Economists feel the current situation in commodity markets is starting to look like a bottom; a combination of underproduction and easy credit at low rates should work as usual to correct conditions.

Maurice S. Benjamin of Benjamin, Hill, & Co. predicted two months ago that the market would have to undergo a severe pullback before reaching new highs. He then sailed for Europe. Following that correct call, he now says the decline is over and predicts a quick improvement in business, stock prices much higher by fall, and still higher by next spring [TW: making one correct call is nice, being able to make the next...not so easy hello Mr. Roubini...]

Front page above the fold editorial: “This is America. Piffling talkers would turn back the calendar to the nineties and destroy the economic progress of thirty years. Vicious rumors spread for selfish purposes; flippant predictions of a five-year slump in business; wholesale demands for the cutting of wages are unworthy of American intelligence. Credit is super-abundant. Business is no worse than three months ago. Twelve months of declining volume is behind us. Many adjustments have been all but completed. Engineering and marketing brains are as fertile as ever. Problems there have always been. To proclaim their insurmountability is childish.”