These initials will be familiar only to those who have devoted a good deal of time to studying the bull market of the 1920s.
O.P. and M.J. were brothers. Oris Praxton, and Mantis James, Van Sweringen. O.P. and M.J. were developing some property shortly after the First World War. A company which owned land they needed for their project refused to sell. The company was a railroad. The brothers thereupon hit upon the idea: they would buy the railroad. This they proceeded to do.
The Van Sweringen brothers were very astute individuals. Realizing that vast sums could be made by buying control of railroads via LEVERAGED METHODS, they proceeded to do just that, building up a vast holding company empire of railroads. They became two of the most prominent and ultra-successful market operators of the 1920s.
Of course, human nature being what it is, the Van Sweringens went too far. They became extremely overextended, dependent for the survival of their empire upon EVER-RISING STOCK PRICES.
Well, markets being what THEY ARE, prices stopped rising finally and turned down. You, dear reader, can guess what happened to the Van Sweringens. You can also guess what happened to the hundreds of thousands, indeed, millions, who attempted to follow the paths of speculation with leveraged funds they and others blazed.
In this just-ended cycle of speculation, leverage, and rising prices, giving way to yet more speculation, more leverage, and more rising prices the mania has not been primarily in stocks, but rather in real estate. The most astute of all operators sold at or near the peak; others, less astute, more greedy, over-emotional, held on. Now, with more and more such operators -- not to mention the generality of Joe Sixpacks -- unable to refinance or roll over their debt, the asset collapse is underway.
