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Chapter Twenty-Three
THE GREAT
DUCK DINNER
Haw Federal-Reserve policies led to
the crash of
1929; the expansion of the money supply as a
means of helping the economy of England; the
resulting wave of speculation in stocks and real
estate; evidence that the Federal-Reserve Board
had foreknowledge of the crash and even executed
the events that were designed to trigger it.
II
The story is told of a New England farmer with a small pond in
his pasture. Each summer, a group of wild ducks would frequent
that pond but try as he would, the farmer could never catch one.
No matter how early in the morning he approached, or how
carefully he constructed a blind, or what kind of duck call he tried,
somehow those crafty birds sensed the danger and managed to be
out of range. Of course, when fall arrived, the ducks headed South,
and the farmer's craving for a duck dinner only intensified.
Then he got an idea. Early in the spring, he started scattering
corn along the edge of the pond. The ducks liked the corn and,
since it was always there, they soon gave up dipping and foraging
for food of their own. After a while, they became used to the farmer
and began to trust him. They could see he was their benefactor and
they now walked close to him with no sense of fear. Life was so
easy, they forgot how to fly. But that was unimportant, because
they were now so fat they couldn't have gotten off the water even if
they had tried-
Fall came, and the ducks stayed. Winter came, and the pond
. froze. The farmer built a shelter to keep them warm. The ducks
I were happy because they didn't have to fly. And the farmer was
l especially happy because, each week all winter long, he had a
I delicious duck dinner.
That is the story of America's Great Depression of the 1930s.