Dagny: "It may not get any cheaper than now."

There's probably considerable truth in that. With our government rewarding the mortgage/banking industry for a job well-done, the pouring of a trillion dollars of unbacked, worthless paper money on the market is going to fuel inflation. That means that it will take more money (because it's not worth as much) to buy the same stuff.

I'm quoting Wikipedia on the Roaring Twenties because it does agree with my other readings.

"A branch of the federal government called the Federal Reserve expanded credit, by setting below market interest rates and low reserve requirements that favored big banks, and the money supply actual increased by about 60% during the time following the recession. The phrase "buying on margin" entered the American vocabulary at this time as more and more Americans over-extended themselves to take advantage of the soaring stock market and expanding credit.

"In 1929, however, Federal Reserve officials realized that they could not sustain the current policy of easy credit. When the Fed started to raise interest rates, the whole house of cards collapsed. The Stock Market crashed and the bank panics began."

If anything here seems vaguely familiar, I would agree that if you really want something and have the money, you might as well buy it.

Sue