Showing results by author "James Ledbetter"

Worshiped by Tea Party politicians but loathed by sane economists, gold has influenced American monetary policy and has exerted an irrational influence on the national psyche for centuries. It is an existential quest that extends to today, as millions of investors remain entranced by the metal and as right-wing presidential candidates present it as the antidote to our economic woes.

This title offers a first-person diary account of living through the Great Depression, with haunting parallels to our own time. Benjamin Roth was born in New York City in 1894. When the stock market crashed in 1929, he had been practicing law for approximately ten years, largely representing local businesses. After nearly two years, he began to grasp the magnitude of what had happened to American economic life, and he began writing down his impressions in a diary that he maintained intermittently until he died in 1978.