Sublime

In the month of September, 1931, a total of 305 American banks closed; in October, a total of 522. Frightened capitalists were hoarding gold now, lest the United States too should go off the gold standard; safe-deposit boxes were being crammed full of coins, and many a mattress was stuffed with gold certificates.

Then everything broke with the doubleheader Depression and war. In 1943 Franklin Roosevelt effectively capped incomes at the equivalent of $400,000 per year, with everything above that taxed at 94 percent. He was reelected in a landslide the next year.