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Economics
We debated whether to name our new beer for the state symbol of Massachusetts or a favorite Boston patriot.
Editor’s Note: Jim Koch founded the Boston Beer Company in 1984 and is widely considered a founding father of the American craft-brewing movement.
Why have thousands of U.S. banks failed over the years? The answers are in our history and politics.
Political leaders once agreed that the U.S. should borrow only for well-defined purposes. But, in the last 20 years, we’ve ignored their guidance and added a staggering $25 trillion to the federal debt.
Editor’s Note: Pres.
Shortly after the author became Chairman of the Federal Reserve in 1987, the stock market plummeted 22 percent in one day.
I’d scrutinized the economy every working day for decades and had visited the Fed scores of times. Nevertheless, when I was appointed chairman in August 1987, I knew I’d have a lot to learn. That was reinforced the minute I walked in the door.
The American method of high-risk, potentially high-reward investments has fueled innovation from New England whaling ventures to Silicon Valley start-ups such as Apple, Intel, Cisco, and Google.
Venture capital (VC) is largely an American invention. It is a “hits” business where exceptional payoffs from a few investments in a large portfolio of startup companies compensate for the vast majority that yield mediocre returns or simply fail.
Roosevelt felt the country needed “direct, vigorous action” to pull it out of the Depression.
The stock market crash of 1929 burst the bubble of uncontrolled speculation and business expansion of the Roaring Twenties.
Nearing its 70th anniversary, the magazine was relaunched in digital format for 72,000 subscribers.
In 1958, my father was honored to join the staff of American Heritage, one of America’s most revered magazines, eventually becoming its Managing Editor and helping many historians strengthen their writing.
In one day, the stock market plummeted 22 percent shortly after the author became Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
I’d scrutinized the economy every working day for decades and had visited the Fed scores of times. Nevertheless, when I was appointed chairman in August 1987, I knew I’d have a lot to learn. That was reinforced the minute I walked in the door.
Banker J. P. Morgan rescued the dollar and bailed out the nation.
On February 5, 1895, the Jupiter of American banking, J. P. Morgan, took the train from New York to Washington to see the president. He had no appointment but came to discuss matters of grave national interest.
Speculators caused a stock market crash in 1792, forcing the federal government to bail out New York bankers— and the nation.
Wall Street’s first bubble swelled burst in the spring of 1792, exerting a profound effect on American politics and society. Nine years after the Treaty of Paris and the acknowledgement of the former colonies— independence, both Europe and America lay in turmoil.
In the early-to-mid 1800s, whale oil made New Bedford, Massachusetts, “the richest city in the world.” In Moby-Dick, his great whaling novel, Herman Melville described the port as “a land of oil,” a place with “patrician-like houses” and “opulent” parks and gardens.
For all his previous successes, President Herbert Hoover proved incapable of arresting the economic free fall of the Depression— or soothing the fears of a distressed nation.
On March 4, 1929, Herbert Hoover took the oath of office as the 31st president of the United States. America, its new leader told the rain-soaked crowd of 50,0000 around the Capitol and countless more listening on the radio, was “filled with millions of happy homes; blessed with comfort and opportunity.”
The country’s financial hub has a long history of lying, cheating, and stealing.
No one likes recessions, but no one dislikes them more than the crooks who are an inevitable part of any financial market.
Seeking a monument to Prohibition’s immense impact on American society, the writer finds it in a French colony.
The problem is as old as the industry itself.
We gave the baby boomers plenty of room to play in
The law of unintended consequences is usually invoked to explain political disasters. Take Prohibition.
During the golden age of golf, many of the sport’s greatest players never went pro. They couldn’t afford the pay cut.
The New York Stock Exchange plans to modernize by merging with a new competitor, just as it did in 1869.
The pitfalls of protectionism
Growing up in a family with many members who earned their living on Wall Street, and with many ancestors and relatives who had done the same, I—as might be expected—very early heard stories of business that I found as fascinating as the tales of military action I was soaking up
Like the nation it covers, American Heritage was revolutionary at its birth. And, like that nation’s story, ours is a real cliffhanger.
It is rare for any magazine to live half a century.
There is much talk today about online piracy, but 19th century authors like Melville, Dickens, and Poe struggled financially because of the lack of international copyright law.
“Yes, I read the illegal translation,” a Czech Internet correspondent known as “Hustey” wrote last summer, when the next, eagerly awaited book in J. K.
A federal tariff in 1828 that favored northern industry infuriated southerners and played a role in eventual secession.
On December 19, 1828, South Carolina’s legislature issued a set of resolutions vigorously opposing a tariff that Congress had enacted earlier in the year.
Milton Hershey built a company town so pleasant that it became a tourist attraction.
After Henry Ford changed America, his grandson accomplished something almost as amazing.
And how history shows it’s actually good for us
THERE’S AN OLD JOKE ABOUT A COMPANY’S NEEDING TO hire a new accounting firm. The chief executive invites the heads of eight firms to come in for interviews and he hires one right away. A friend asks him how he did it. “Simple,” the chief executive replies.
Sonoma County harvests a rich immigrant past.
Finding pockets of poverty was easy.
In 1967, I was working as a reporter for the Delta Democrat-Times, in Greenville, Mississippi, covering civil rights, the courts, and municipal affairs. On April 9, Robert F.