The Slide

Continuation of the depression series

1929
I told dad that I liked bubbles. He chuckled at me. He said the bubble that grand dad was talking about wasn't real. He said that sometimes so many people like and want something that there is great demand for it, and when that happens things go good for businessmen. But after awhile, just like a bubble, it gets too big and has to pop. I don't like it when bubbles pop, I told my dad. He looked sad as he agreed with me. Then he told me to go out and play, the grownups were talking. I hid in the hallway, grand dad said something about too many people were buying air. I learned later that he meant that people where buying stock up fast because they thought that the stock would go up, because it had already gone up. A new government agency had decided to raise interest rates to try and stop this air buying, but grand dad said that was a bad thing to do.

2007
My husband and I love our new home. The housing market seems to be good right now. People are buying up homes and flipping them like crazy. We are in a housing bubble right now, have been for a few years. We talked about flipping houses as well. So man people are making good money doing it, and there are even television programs on how to do it. The Federal reserve has dropped interests rates once again, encouraging more people to buy, making it easier for more people to buy homes that normally they couldn't afford. Buying a home right now is a good sound investment.

October 29, 1929

Dad said that the stocks that he had purchased were now worth only a tenth of what they had been. Mom had her worried look on, and dad said that they would just have to wait and see what will happen now. Mom teared up a bit, they had a lot of money in the stock market, even if grand dad had warned them that this bubble was getting to be too big.

The next day, dad came home early from work. His managers had told the line workers that they were slowing production until they could figure out how much demand for their goods there really was. He would not go back to work for 3 days, and he would not get paid for that time. Mom ran into her bedroom, crying. Dad said that we would not be buying that new car that we had been saving for.

Late 2007

Flipping house has turned out to be a bad thing to do. Those low interest rates have suddenly gone up. Those too good to be true loans have reared their ugly heads. You can't get a fixed rate if your credit isn't spectacular. Our friends are now having problems selling their homes before the mortgages comes due. We bought one house to flip, we too seem to be having a problem flipping it. I don't know how much longer we can go on paying 2 mortgages.