title: Origins of the Crash: The Great Bubble and Its Undoing
author:  Roger Lowenstein 
description: "The perfect epitaph to an era of monumental avarice and folly on Wall Street. This is financial history at its best."&#160;&mdash;<b>Ron Chernow</b>
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  [TRUTH](Truth_split_067.html#filepos1797551)
  
    
  
    
  
    
  
    
  
    
  
    
  
    
  
    
  
  Aleatha Romig
  
    
  
    
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
    
  
    
  
  It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing
  can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world.  
  -
  
  
  Chaos Theory
  
    
  
  
  [Prologue](Truth_split_067.html#filepos1797551)
  
    
  
  July 2011...
  
  The tires of their Chevy Equinox bounced along the worn pavement and
  dilapidated surface of Bristol Road. Peering through the windshield at the
  signs of a dying city, Rich Bosley wondered if this was how the
  
  
  old west
  
  
  felt when the gold rush ended. Acres and acres of fenced concrete occupied
  each side of the decrepit street. At one time during Flint, Michigan’s prime,
  cars filled these parking lots twenty-four hours a day. Three shifts of
  workers came and went from these factories. Today it represented
  
  
  urban decay
  
  
  at its utmost.
  
  In 1908 General Motors opened their newly founded headquar