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Learn from Golf, Gene Sarazen and 1929 : Don't Panic, Take it Easy and Go to the Links As the World Financial Markets Struggle for Inevitable Balance

By Andis Kaulins

We read this story about the 1929 stock market crash many years ago in a type of businessman's chain letter and were glad to find it again online at the Aircraft Resource Center:

Here is the story in the approximate version that we heard it 30 years ago:

"The question:

Over a generation ago, in 1923, who was:

1. President of the largest steel company?
2. President of the largest gas company?
3. President of the New York Stock Exchange?
4. Greatest wheat speculator?
5. President of the Bank of International Settlement?
6. Wheat Bear of Wall Street?

These men were considered some of the world's most successful of their day. Now, 80 years later, the history book asks us, if we know what ultimately became of them. The answer:

1. The president of the largest steel company, Charles Schwab, died a pauper.
2. The president of the largest gas company, Edward Hopson, went insane.
3. The president of the NYSE, Richard Whitney, was released from prison to die at home.
4. The greatest wheat speculator, Arthur Cooger, died abroad, penniless.
5. The president of the Bank of International Settlement, shot himself.
6. The Great Bear of Wall Street, Cosabee Livermore, also committed suicide.

However, in that same year, 1923, the PGA Champion and the winner of the most important golf tournament, the US Open, was Gene Sarazen. What became of him? He played golf until he was 92, died in 1999 at the age of 95. He was financially secure at the time of his death. The moral: Screw work. Play golf. You'll live longer and be better off in the end.

Origins:

This is a vintage piece of glurge, one which appears to have been in continuous circulation since at least 1948. Over the years it has been through a variety of alterations, with names being added and dropped from the list, the fates of the various men changing in severity, and different morals being tacked onto the end. In modern versions many of the names have become so distorted through mistranscription to be almost unrecognizeable." [link added by LawPundit]

To learn the TRUE STORY go to the Aircraft Resource Center.

Full post as published by LawPundit on September 30, 2008 (boomark / email).