When I was kid growing up in the Midwest, I remember the 4th of July parades that would feature World War II veterans throwing out candy and waiving with banners at the crowd. At some point in the early 2000s, we stopped seeing those floats as the members of the Greatest Generation died off. With every passing of a generation, we often lose the unique wisdom that only those members possessed.
For those who lived through the Great Depression, the importance of liquidity was self-evident. They saw banks close. If they were adults engaging in financial transactions before 1933, they actually witnessed their life savings disappear when banks became insolvent. A man like J.P. Morgan was able to rise in stature because he said, “You can trust me, I personally own much of AT&T, Western Union, U.S. Steel, International Harvester, General Electric, and every railroad so if you bank … Read the rest of this article!