IS IT JUST ME, OR DOES ANYONE ELSE THINK OF THE CURRENT ECONOMY AS A LUNG CANCER PATIENT BEING TREATED WITH PAIN KILLERS AND CIGARETTES?

Hi all, I work in finance and a lot of my clients have asked if there is a parallel in our history to our current economic situation. There really is no analogous US event. After a lot of searching the closest parallel seems to be from the German Republic of 1919 to 1933. Called the Weimar Republic because of its location, they experienced the worst inflation in the world to that point in 1923. They then reissued their currency and we (the US) loaned them money to repay their war debts. They used some of this money to buy shares in German companies that were in trouble. This practice continued into the world-wide depression of the early 1930's. The government promised to resell the shares to private concerns once the companies were back on their feet. In 1933 Hitler became Reich chancellor. He then proceeded to dismantle the Republic's constitution without actually amending it (sound familiar?). He also reneged on the government's promise to resell the shares of private companies, effectively nationalizing them. It helps to remember that NAZI is a contraction of the German words for "National-Socialist." The whole thing is uncanny.