The great American economist Benjamin Anderson wrote Economics and the Public Welfare: A Financial and Economic History of the United State, 1914 – 1946. Most mainstream economists get the history of that period, especially the Great Depression, wrong. If you want to know what really happened and why, read Anderson's book. In a chapter on the stock market crash of 1929, Anderson related the following story:
One able Jewish investment banker said in the summer of 1928 that he did not understand what was going on. He said, “When I do no understand I do nothing.” He had withdrawn from the market. He had turned his holdings into cash, and he was waiting until he understood.
