Stop in for a cup of coffee

3 people who got mega-rich during the Great Depression because they had cash available...

1. Howard Hughes
In 1932, at the height of the nation's economic woes, he formed the Hughes Aircraft Company. He built the company into a major-league defense supplier and by the time he died in 1976, his fortune totaled a reported $2.5 billion.

2. J. Paul Getty
An amazing beneficiary of good timing and great business acumen, Getty created an oil empire out an inheritance of $500,000 received in 1930. With oil stocks massively depressed, he snatched them up at bargain prices and created an oil conglomerate to rival Rockefeller. Throughout the 20th century he became a billionaire many times over.

3. Joe Kennedy
Joe Kennedy, Sr., patriarch of the Camelot clan, built up a tidy sum in the 1920s with a hearty amount of speculation, peppered with insider trading and market manipulation. Unlike many other of his ilk who helped to create the unstable markets that brought about the financial calamities of the '30s, Kennedy knew when to get out. Once out of the stock market before the crash, Joe invested his money in real estate, liquor, and movie studios, generating gaudy profits and cementing his family's place in the highest financial echelon of American society.