Boy, it’s great to be alive and living in the 1920s. World War I is long over and times have never been so good. It’s the “Roaring Twenties” after all and the stock market keeps making new highs. My bank account has never been healthier. I don’t have a care in the world!

Gosh, I must have been day dreaming! It’s 100 years later and it’s the 2020s. But the political/economic situation is eerily similar. In the 1920s, there was little or no regulation of the financial markets, banks or anything else. This was a “Golden Age” that would never end. However, the system collapsed and the Great Depression arrived and put an end to that foolish notion!

Today, the stock market keeps making new highs, regardless of any negative news. The financial markets, banks and other important areas are somewhat regulated. But the political impetus is to weaken or eliminate oversight by government professionals who really do try to “eliminate waste, fraud and abuse”!

Most of the Inspectors General of the various governmental agencies have been fired. Independent oversight is almost non-existent and getting worse. It’s easy to blame all our problems on shadowy “woke” government workers. But we would have never become the great country that we already are without a strong, competent federal government. States acting independently could have never achieved this greatness!

Maybe, it’ll be different this time. But history has a way of repeating itself. And our history is heading towards us like a runaway locomotive. Plus, we have a $37 trillion National Debt that we didn’t have last time. Will we gain control of this situation or must we prepare for what we weren’t prepared for almost 100 years ago?

Ben M. Petty

Tullahoma