Great Depression happened in 1929. It took over 10 years to cure.

Effects of depression:
13 million people became unemployed.
Industrial production fell by nearly 45% between the years 1929 and 1932.
Home-building dropped by 80% between the years 1929 and 1932.
From the years 1929 to 1932, about 5000 banks went out of business.

That’s where when the buyer ran out of the market…. and this is what happening now in 2008. Investors now are panic and cash out from stock market.

As mass production has to be accompanied by mass consumption, mass consumption, in turn, implies a distribution of wealth – not of existing wealth, but of wealth as it is currently produced – to provide men with buying power equal to the amount of goods and services offered by the nation’s economic machinery.
Instead of achieving that kind of distribution, a giant suction pump had by 1929-30 drawn into a few hands an increasing portion of currently produced wealth. This served them as capital accumulations. But by taking purchasing power out of the hands of mass consumers, the savers denied to themselves the kind of effective demand for their products that would justify a reinvestment of their capital accumulations in new plants. In consequence, as in a poker game where the chips were concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, the other fellows could stay in the game only by borrowing. When their credit ran out, the game stopped.

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As a fourth generation banker, I literally grew up at our local bank in Pensacola, Florida, The Citizens & Peoples National Bank. I can’t remember a time in my early childhood when I didn’t dream about being the president of this great company. To follow in my fathers’ footsteps and succeed him as president was the basis of that recurring dream. As a child, I would love it when my father or mother would take me to the bank. I would run around and speak to everyone and I considered many of those employees like my extended family. Everyone enjoyed working there and the warmth and hospitality they displayed impelled me to want to work there someday.

I joined the bank in 1982 and felt that I was well on my way to fulfilling that dream when something happened that changed everything. On October 6, 1986, my grandfather passed away. At the time, he was the Chairman of the Board of Directors and the former president of our bank. As an independent bank with a limited number of stockholders, and he being one of the largest stockholders, our future was pretty certain. We were at that time rated as one of the top 100 banks in the nation in safety and soundness. For a small independent bank, this was unprecedented.

After he died, there was clearly a change in attitude that was led by the Board of Directors to bring the bank forward to be a major player in the Pensacola market. To change how we did business in order to compete with the other national and regional rivals within our community. There was also a faction of stockholders and directors that were insistent to test the waters for a possible buyout although my father was against it.

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As high numbers of people reach retirement age, long term financial security is becoming a major concern. With the view of plummeting social security advantages, pension plans and volatile 410K retirement plans getting non-existent, most of the people are looking for other retirement options. Now, they believe that they are left with only one viable option retirement investment.

With modern day economic recession and rising food, and fuel prices, it has become almost impeccable to save for the future years. Individuals expecting their retirement within 10 to 15 years go for high return retirement investment, but at the same time are skeptical whether it would be safe and secure or not. In most of the cases, average people do not have enough cash required to earn high rate of interest, which on the other hand wealthy people enjoy.

Both long-term and short-term retirement clubs have emerged over the internet, which helps quite a lot in removing the road blocks for numerous entrepreneurs. These programs are very efficient and present their member with the chance to understand dividends, which at times is well beyond the average investor’s reach. Besides, they provide you with a viable retirement income option, which you need the most after retirement.

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