History repeats itself: The Crash of 1929 & The Great Depression.

Based on eight years of continued prosperity, presidents and economists alike confidently predicted that America would soon enter a time when there would be no more poverty, no more depressions -- a "New Era" when everyone could be rich.

History repeats itself, usually by the third generation. Repetition occurs because it takes three generations for a culture to forget once the oldest generation dies out. Naturally, they'd continued playing the game as THEY'D learned it, and usually are too old in the game to behave in the new way. They'd spent a lifetime learning & investing in it by that old system. Until that cultural memory dies out with the oldest, it cannot be fully accepted. (Three generations = a century.)

Watch The Crash of 1929 on PBS. See more from American Experience.