Standards of living improved in all Western countries after the Second World War. Incomes rose quickly, allowing more people to enjoy the use of products that were novelties or luxuries before the war, things like household appliances and cars. Homes were getting larger to fit all of the things people were able to afford…
Just before the ‘second industrial revolution’ created new industries and their accompanying fortunes in areas like electricity, steel, oil, and telephones, new investment in the United States was concentrated in railways. Railroad projects attracted huge amounts of private and public resources. It also attracted speculators and their machinations as well as the unscrupulous business…
The pace of bank failures in the United States picked up in the 1980s and one of the largest of these came in 1984, when Continental Illinois had to be rescued. The bank was a Chicago lender that was growing rapidly starting from the late-1970s. Yet, this growth was driven by loans to clients…
The oil crises of the 1970s were events that reordered the global economy. Energy consuming economies, like those of the European countries after Les Trente Glorieuses (the ‘Thirty Glorious Years’), saw their strong growth suddenly grind to a halt. At the same time, energy producing regions received a windfall. The U.S. economy was a…
While not as wealthy as their late-19th century equivalents, the wealthiest Americans of the early-19th century were famous across the country. Among the more well-known of these was New York’s John Jacob Astor, who made a fortune in trade and finance. His Philadelphia equivalent was also a foreign-born merchant-turned-financier, Stephen Girard. Girard founded a…
Many expenses incurred in the American Revolution by the colonists were borne by colonial governments rather than the Continental Congress. These debts went unpaid for years and came to be worth little after the war. In the late 1780s though, a new Constitution was drafted that gave the central government new powers. At the same…
Wars increase volatility in all sorts of markets by radically changing the circumstances of production and the final destination of the economy’s gross domestic product. New demand replaces old demand and the articles in shortest supply can quickly change. There is also considerable uncertainty in war; as the military theorist Carl von Clausewitz put…
In the aftermath of the stock market crash of 1929, the Great Depression, and the Second World War, the stock market looked moribund in America. Share prices were still a long way from returning to their peak levels from just before the crash. Brokerage firms were also having trouble engaging with new customers. Trading…
Credit unions were absent in Canada at the start of the 20th century. Yet, membership of credit unions became commonplace and, in Quebec, grew to encompass the vast majority of the population by the end of the century. These institutions found a better way to serve a gap in the market for credit that…
Seen in one light, it appeared the perfect time for a U.S. investor to buy a bond in the late 1890s. Disregarding year-to-year movements in prices that largely cancelled out, there was hardly any inflation over long periods of time. Also, the going rates on all sorts of fixed income investments had generally fallen…
