Then and Now

THEN: Mr. Mitchell was followed shortly by Albert H. Wiggin, head of the Chase National Bank, William Potter, head of the Guaranty Trust Company; and Seward Prosser, head of the Bankers Trust Company. They had come to confer with Thomas W. Lamont of the Morgan firm. In the space of a few minutes these five men, with George F. Baker, Jr., of the First National Bank, agreed in behalf of their respective institutions to put up forty millions apiece to shore up the stock market.

NOW: Today, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank (ECB), the Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan, and the Swiss National Bank are announcing coordinated measures designed to address the continued elevated pressures in U.S. dollar short-term funding markets.

THEN:The gigantic edifice of prices was honeycombed with speculative credit and was now breaking under its own weight.
NOW: The gigantic edifice of prices is honeycombed with speculative credit and is now breaking under its own weight.

Then: Florida real estate boom and bust
Now: Florida real estate boom and bust

Then: Al Capone
Now: Al Qaida

??? And although the bankers' pool had prevented for the moment an utter collapse, there was no gain, saying the fact that the economic structure had cracked wide open.

Herbert Hoover (Bush) himself, in a White House statement, pointed out that "the fundamental business of the country, that is, production and distribution of commodities, is on a sound and prosperous basis." But toward the close of Saturday's session prices began to slip again. And on Monday the rout was under way once more.