In my researching of the year 1958, there was a recession that year. The "Eisenhower Recession" it was called. Unemployment reached 5 million at the peak. Sales of new cars obviously took a nosedive. But not necessarily in all cases.
What is interesting about sales of new cars that year has to do with income levels. The middle class models such as Chevrolet's Bel Air which sold for less than $1800 (before the salesman turned you upside down to shake out the rest of the money from your pockets for all the extra options you didn't want or need). Sales weren't so bad, and they began to pick up later in the year. That recession, the first since the end of WW II (the Great Depression ended when WW II began), wasn't long lived.
But, surprisingly, sales of the new luxury models -- GM's Cadillac, and the higher end Buicks, Ford's Lincoln, Chrysler's Imperial (Packard in 1958 was already kaput) were dismal.
Rich folks get way more nervous when times get lean. They have more to lose in terms of what can be lost. Especially rich folks who got that way through excess borrowing.
I was born in 1952, in January. Truman was still President. Ike won that November but didn't take the oath until shortly after I turned one year's of calendar age.
In 1950 maybe 3 million households had TVs. By 1958 the number had ballooned to over 50 million. Kind of like the internet boom in the late 90s. A few nerds had PCs and a dot com connection. A few days later everyone in the world had a PC of some kind and was paying monthly fees for internet service.
As far as what took place in the prior century is concerned, we should know; in fact, everyone must know, what causes boom and bust periods.
My understanding as to the cause is pretty simplified. Maybe it's too simplified.
Abuse of credit. Not use of credit. Credit has its beneficial use. It's abuse of credit that causes a boom and abuse of credit that causes a bust.
I think what you are describing is how I view these short term loan sharking operations that will lend you money at outrageous rates of interest. What happens is you go back to that lender every Friday after you get paid until what you owe in interest is equal to how much you get paid. So you're left with nothing.
To me this is what that particular branch of the money management agency is doing. They are borrowing very short term just to get by and then borrow again to do the same thing.
What the social and political condition will be like is largely left up to the imagination. It wouldn't be pleasant, that's for sure.
