ACT III: The Great Great Depression

Scene 1

• Time: October 18, 1987
• Place: The United States
• Song: Memories (arranged by Stravinski/Paderewski)
• Synopsis: Just two years earlier, the U.S., economically the strongest country in the world and the single largest creditor to the rest of the world, had become the world's largest debtor country. Sagging under the weight of its own burgeoning federal budget deficits and negative trade balances, the U.S. is piling up an unwieldy amount of national and foreign debt. Two years of orchestrated depreciation in the value of the dollar has exacerbated the problem, not solved it. U.S. President Reagan and the Congress are at an impasse on how to resolve the federal budget deficits and Secretary of the Treasury James Baker is unable to reach an accord with West German leaders over the future course of foreign exchange rates. As protectionist sentiment increases, Congress considers passing major retaliatory trade legislation....But don't worry folks. It can't happen again.

Scene 2

• Time: October 19, 1987
• Place: Wall Street, USA
• Song: Rhapsody in Blue (Reprise)
• Synopsis: The Dow Jones Industrial Average declines 508 points, an unprecedented one-day peacetime drop of 22.6%. Newspaper headlines around the world read, "Stock Market Crashes!" President Reagan seeks to reassure the American people. "The economy is sound," he says. But, households have just lost one-third of their stock market assets and total asset values have been halved over night.... Can it happen again?