As attendees of the Fall PREA Conference recently gathered to hear Andrew Ross Sorkin speak — and received copies of his book 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History — the timing could not have been more prescient. Sorkin’s reflections on the speculative mania, regulatory gaps and economic fragility that preceded the Great Crash of 1929 offer more than historical insight — they serve as a mirror to the present moment.
Nearly a century after Black Tuesday, the financial world finds itself once again at a crossroads. While the nature of the instruments and institutions have evolved, the underlying psychology and systemic vulnerabilities bear striking resemblance to those of the late 1920s. The question is not whether history will repeat itself, but whether we are paying enough attention to the way in which it rhymes.
In the years leading up to 1929, the stock market soared on a wave of optimism. Margin buying — investors borrowing heavil
