The collapse of "inflated credit" ... in 1929

A quote attributed to Winston Churchill, in Ann Petifor's article, 1929 once more?, The Guardian (UK), April 12, 2008:

The year 1929 reached almost the end... under the promise and appearance of increasing prosperity, particularly in the United States. But in October a sudden and violent tempest swept over Wall Street......... The whole wealth so swiftly gathered in the paper values of previous years vanished. The prosperity of millions of American homes had grown up a gigantic structure of inflated credit, now suddenly proved phantom. Apart from the nation-wide speculation in shares which even the most famous banks had encouraged by easy loans, a vast system of purchase by instalment of houses, furniture, cars and numberless kinds of household conveniences and indulgences had grown up. All now fell together.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

(This quote is from Churchill's 1948 retrospective, The Gathering Storm.)