Temple controls everyone’s economic future Catastrophe was general in the farm belt. Thousands of farmers either faced foreclosure on old debts or their banks refused to grant new credit for the approaching growing season. The value of Iowa farmland was decreased by half and small towns withered as the local commerce disappeared. Iowa lost fifty thousand of its citizens. The price of corn, which had been above $3.50 only a few years earlier, fell steadily, headed toward a ruinous low—corn at $1 a bushel. The Middle West and other regions were trapped in an economic phenomenon unfamiliar to all but the most elderly of Americans—deflation. Since World War II, Americans had become accustomed to one constant, rising prices. In the fortyyear upward slope of modern inflation, the only thing that varied was how fast prices were increasing.
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