The Driver - Part X - Panic of 1893; Grover Cleveland; Gold; the recovery.

Click here for Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 of my review of The Driver.

Pages 136 - 225 [original edition] of The Driver focused less on the Panic of 1893 and focused more the individuals and their fight to overcome the Panic and its consequences.

This portion of the book begins with a brief explanation of steps taken by President Cleveland to stop the run on gold. pp. 136-137. These steps occurred prior to the election of 1896 and the administration of President McKinley, events that I have credited with restoring the gold standard and putting the crisis to its final rest.

Much of the plot that follows in the next 90 pages describes the actions one man takes to reinvigorate one business following the Panic. If we are to benefit from any lesson of The Driver [and these 90 pages in particular], it is the lesson that panics are not resolved by government spending. They are resolved by the entrepreneurship of individuals. Individuals lead us out of hard economic times. Individuals rescue depressed businesses, take risks and buy into down markets. The individual is the true "driver" of the free economy. The individual is the driver of freedom itself. As a result, the individual is often also made the victim of those he has benefitted/liberated - as we shall see in upcoming parts of The Driver.

See part 11 of my review here.