… had a great fall.

Illustration by Maxfield Parrish, Mother Goose in Prose by L. Frank Baum

It was eighty years ago this week that the financial world experienced "Black Tuesday", the 1929 stock market crash. A year ago many feared we were about to experience another Great Depression, the difference being that there are now measures in place to advert a total collapse of our financial system. But it may be those very financial reforms that lead us to a false sense of security at times. It can be a lot like being in an inflatable life boat in the middle of the ocean, it only takes a little leak in the boat and before long you are in deep do-do.

I was born nine years after the crash but it still had an impact on how I was brought up. My parents, my mother especially, did not believe in borrowing, even for a home. It was her belief that you saved before you spent. In later years she would amend that belief to allow for a home mortgage, but that was it. If you wanted to buy a car, you were to save until you had the cash to purchase one. We have become a very credit dependant society today and that monster has reared up to bite us in the ass.

There is a saying, 'moderation in all things' and that really is a pretty good axiom to live by. There is only so much the government can do to protect us from ourselves and over protection is never good. We have to learn to be responsible for ourselves and our actions. We need to exercise our responsibility muscle and make it strong, so as to withstand the many snake oil salesmen that await to make us their prey.