Farm equipment dealers got hung out to dry in that time period. A lot of them had used equipment on the lot, floor planned paying interest on it, with no hopes of selling it for as much as they had in it. To compound matters making it worse for them, the manufacturers started adding incentives to get new iron to move so they would not have to shut plants down. I ordered a brand new JD 4450 factory fresh in 1988 (last year made) and paid the dealer less for it than nearby dealers were asking for the same model a few years old with a thousand hours on them. The factory was cutting prices to the bone to survive, the local dealer shaving his margin to get a sale (any sale he could) and the dealers were just stuck with the high priced used stuff they had traded for when times were better.

Tough times indeed. It could happen again. A grain embargo - price controls - lots of ways for the powers that be to screw things up. They have done it before.

John