Excerpt:
"Mass delusions are not rare. They salt the human story. The hallucinatory types are well known; so also is the sudden variation called mania, generally localized, like the tulip mania in Holland many years ago or the common stock mania of a recent time in Wall Street. But a delusion affecting the mentality of the entire world at one time was hitherto unknown. All our experience with it is original.
This is a delusion about credit. And whereas from the nature of credit it is to be expected that a certain line will divide the view between creditor and debtor, the irrational fact in this case is that for more than ten years debtors and creditors together have pursued the same deceptions. In many ways, as will appear the folly of the lender has exceeded the extravagance of the borrower."
Originally published in 1932 as the World was in the middle of the Great Depression, author Garret details his insights and theories on the hows and whys the economic system collapsed. Some economists use Garret's work as a template that describes today's severe economic problems.
