Let us now sketch in broad outline a business cycle, bearing in mind that this series of changes does not repeat itself with unvarying regularity, but that it is fairly typical in the modern business world.

The period leading up to a crisis is one of relative prosperity; then occurs a crisis in which prices fall, at first rapidly, and afterward for a while going slowly lower.

When prices are at the lowest point many factories are closed, and much labor is unemployed.

Let us start at that point.

Conditions are worse in some industries than in others.