Welcome to this week’s edition of Seen and Heard, in which I catalog the most interesting things I’ve seen, heard and read over the previous seven days. 

Book Review: 1929: “Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History and How it Shattered a Nation” by Andrew Ross Sorkin – This book has been on the New York Times best seller list for many weeks – with good reason, it turns out. I’m familiar with Sorkin from his economics writing for the Times and the various business conferences he organizes. At the beginning of this book he explains that after his last one, “Too Big to Fail” which was about the 2008 financial crisis, he became intrigued by the 1929 crash. I’ve studied that event in history class, read several books about it, and assumed I knew what I needed to know, but Sorkin’s book puts it all in a much clearer context. Specifically, the 1929 crash was triggered by people going crazy with stock market investments. Established figures on Wall Street, before things like insider trading were illegal, manipulated the market to make themselves fortunes and thought there was nothing wrong with it. Countless others in the country wanted to become wealthy too and jumped into the market. Like real estate promoters before 2008 who said the value of real estate never goes down, stock promoters in the 1920s said the same about that market. To accelerate their gains, people bought stock “on margin” which meant putting up $1000 of your own money and borrowing $9000 from the brokerage so you could buy $10,000 worth of stock. The stock was held by the broker for collateral. The market went up and up and up until it didn’t. In our hypothetical, when the value of the stock sunk below $9000, the brokerage would demand more cash from the investor to make up the difference. If the investor didn’t have the cash – and most did not – the brokerage would sell the stock to recoup its money. More stocks being offered for sale drove the price further down which is what precipitated the crash. The revelation to me was that within two years the stock market had stabilized and was behaving rationally. But in the meantime, thousands of banks across the US failed. With no deposit insurance, people lost whatever savings they had. More importantly for the economy, banks were unable to extend credit which froze up the economy. Sorkin suggests it was a crisis of confidence as much as one of economics. The new president, Franklin Roosevelt, had mixed success with the solutions he proposed, but his positive demeanor and cheerful personality made people feel more confident which is one reason why Roosevelt was deemed to be so successful. At the conclusion of the book, Sorkin sounds a bit pessimistic. He says in 1929 as in 2008, it was clear to many that the economy was at great risk but because so much profit was being made hardly anyone was willing to apply the brakes. He sees that as a function of human nature and is doubtful we will learn any lessons from these past mistakes. 

Television – Winter Olympics week 3 – I didn’t see much live Olympic coverage this week but tried to catch the highlights on YouTube and follow events online. US women Olympians finished the week strong with the hockey team coming from behind to beat Canada for the gold medal. Skier Mikaela Shiffrin won a gold medal in slalom, and Alysa Liu won a gold medal in figure skating. Then on Sunday, the US men’s Olympic hockey team beat Canada in sudden death overtime. The Olympics ended Sunday but I’ll do some concluding comments next week. 

Newspaper feature – Last weekend, the Boston Sunday Globe Sunday Arts section launched a new feature. “One Special Thing” is a weekly series in which a member of the Globe Arts section “will choose something that speaks to us and sings to us, something timeless that we return to in good times and bad.” The opening essay was about “The Friends of Eddie Coyle”, the 1970 debut novel by George V. Higgins which was later made into a classic movie that starred Robert Mitchum. I think what the Globe plans to do is a little like what I try to do with this Seen & Heard column so I look forward to seeing how they handle it in the weeks ahead. 

Newspaper article: “Inside the Debacle That Led to the Closure of El Paso’s Airspace” in New York Times on February 14, 2026. Late on Tuesday, February 10, 2026, the FAA announced that the air space over El Paso, Texas, was closed for national security purposes for the next ten days. I remember seeing that news and thinking, are we about to attack Mexico? Is there a terrorist threat? Neither of those made sense because the response would not be limited to one small segment of the US-Mexican border. Early the next morning I watched on Reddit as people who’d been scheduled to fly into or out of El Paso had their plans upended with no warning. Then by mid-morning, the restriction had been lifted. A multiple choice flow of explanations ensued from “administration sources,” none of which sounded credible. This Times story offers some explanation and context. The US military has developed some kind of laser that can be used against drones. It’s important to develop such capabilities because the use of drones by Ukraine and Russia are revolutionizing warfare and the US has to be prepared. But the “Secretary of War” wants to use the weapon to shoot down drones purportedly being used by drug cartels to carry product across the US border. Because the US Customs and Border Patrol is charged with defending our national border, they wanted access to this weapon. However, the FAA, still scarred by the preventable tragedy that occurred last year when an Army helicopter collided with a passenger plane landing at Reagan Airport killing all on both aircrafts, wants everyone to proceed cautiously with this weapon lest innocent aviators and passengers be shot out of the sky. In this El Paso incident, the military and border patrol ignored the FAA’s concerns and shot off the laser at a supposed drug drone. With its concerns being ignored, the FAA promptly closed the air space which then got everyone’s attention. You’d like to think the adults in the room will figure this out so innocent people will be safe but that would be wishful thinking. Oh, and multiple sources told the NYT that the target was not a drone but a mylar balloon that slipped away from some kid’s birthday party and floated across the border. 

Obituary – Jesse Jackson – Rev. Jesse Jackson died on Tuesday, February 17, 2026, at age 84. In its obituary, the New York Times called him “the nation’s most influential Black figure in the years between the civil rights crusades of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the election of Barack Obama.” Jackson was a superb orator who ran twice for president. His speeches, particularly at the Democratic conventions in 1984 and 1988, were inspiring. I want to say that Jackson was ahead of his time because many of the positions he proposed which seemed radical back then make abundant sense today, especially in view of our current political climate. But rather than being ahead of his time, perhaps Jackson helped shape our present in a good way. Jackson’s 1984 Rainbow Coalition, which sought to mobilize racial minorities, the working class, LGBTQ individuals, and other marginalized communities into a powerful political movement never materialized but should still be pursued. It’s needed more than ever today. 

Obituary – Robert Duvall – Actor Robert Duvall died on February 15, 2026, at age 95. He had been in too many movies to mention and all of his performances that I recall were excellent. The one that always stood out for me was his portrayal of LTC Kilgore in the 1979 film Apocalypse Now. Kilgore commanded an air cavalry squadron that conducted an air assault on a Viet Cong village. This portion of the movie was subordinate to the plot but it was my favorite part of the film.