麻豆社

Peter Day remembers how tough life can be for farmers in the American Midwest when crop prices fluctuate. And he marks the end of the trading pits at the Chicago Board of Trade, where those crops are bought and sold. In their heyday, the pits were so packed and frantically busy, that when one broker died of a heart attack there, he was held upright by the bodily pressure of the others around him, until the bell went for the end of the session. Only then, when the shouting stopped and the traders walked away, did anybody notice.

(Photo: Trading pit at Chicago Board of Trade. Credit: Peter Thompson, Getty Images)