It is 1927 and the stock market is climbing like fury. Everyone who owns stocks seems to be getting rich. So why don't you take your savings and buy as many stocks as you can? You can buy them on margin—borrowed money. That means you get lots of shares for little money. Which is exactly what you do. Then you feel very smart as the stock market balloon goes from big to bigger. By 1929 you are rich . As President Calvin Coolidge leaves office, he gives the market his blessing. "The stock market is absolutely sound," he says. Then comes October 24, 1929. Black Thursday. Something is wrong. The stock market balloon suddenly is pierced, and the air is seeping out fast. People are panicking. They are trying to sell their stocks . But no one wants to buy stocks now. They have lost all their value. And remember those stocks you bought on margin with borrowed funds? Well, now you owe the lender money, possibly lots of money. You don't have any? You can sell your car, or house, or both. You lost your job, too? Too bad, but you still owe the money. Elliot V. Bell covered the crash for the New York Times: "It came with a speed and ferocity that left men dazed. The market seemed like an insensate thing that was wreaking a wild and pitiless revenge upon those who had sought to master it ."

Most Americans aren't stock owners—they have their money in banks. But the banks have been lending out their money to speculators in the stock market. And so when large numbers of depositors suddenly want their cash, the banks don't have it to give. Thousands of banks simply close their doors . Factories close. People stop buying cars, they stop building houses. They have no money. What's happening? We're having a depression. And like a depression of the mind, it seems like there is no way out. And it is growing—not only in our country, but in the rest of the world as well. This financial calamity will be called the Great Depression.

By 1932 at least twelve million people are out of work—counting entire families, that makes nearly fifty million victims . They are losing their homes, their farms, everything they own. Their freedom itself is being jeopardized.