The Wall Street Crash of 1929 left countless people bankrupt and ushered in the Great Depression, a period of profound economic hardship that lasted from 1929 until 1939. Benjamin’s investment strategies—short-selling and taking money out of the market—suggest, at the very least, that he predicted that the crash would happen and then profited from that prediction, showing that he at least profits from others’ losses, even if he doesn’t directly
cause those losses.