The Business Of America

The second issue quickly became nearly worthless—but it was redeemed by the new federal government in 1791 at 100 cents on the dollar. At the same time the states, especially Virginia and the Carolinas, issued over 200 million dollars of their own currency. In effect, the paper money was a hidden tax on the people, and indeed was the only method of taxation that was possible at the time. The skyrocketing inflation was a hardship on the few people who had fixed incomes—but 90 percent of the people were farmers, and were not directly affected by that inflation. Debtors benefited by paying off their debts with depreciated paper.

Despite some self-doubts that were probably felt by few actual businessmen of the period, George Babbitt is considered the model businessman and upstanding small-town citizen of the 1920s. Even though Lewis (1885–1951) had intended the novel as a criticism of U.S. society, its widespread popularity suggests that many readers of the 1920s found something they liked in George Babbitt. Nevertheless, the character’s name has since become a synonym for spiritual emptiness and complacency (being uncritically satisfied with oneself or one’s society).

Speculation in stocks drove prices up to unprecedented valuation levels. In 1870 John D. Rockefeller, his brother William Rockefeller, Henry Flagler, Oliver Burr Jennings and silent partner Stephen V. Harkness formed Standard Oil. Standard Oil sought every possible advantage over its competitors. One method was using Standard’s high shipping volume to secure discounts and drawbacks from railroads. Standard continued to monopolize the oil industry in the U.S. until it was broken up by the 1911 supreme court case Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States. Despite their remarkable progress and general prosperity, 19th-century U.S. farmers experienced recurring cycles of hardship, caused primarily by falling world prices for cotton and wheat.

World events and local campaigns in support of a prohibition amendment eventually overcame this reservation. 20 million jobs were created under Reagan’s presidency – which were made up of 82 percent high-paying and long-term jobs. From 1982 to 1987 the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained over 1900 points from 776 in 1982 to 2722 in 1987 – about a 350% increase. which two functional groups are always found in amino acids An economic boom took place from 1983 until a recession began in 1990. Between 1983 and 1989 the number of people below the poverty line decreased by 3.8 million. The percentage of workers belonging to a union (or “density”) in the United States peaked in 1954 at almost 35% and the total number of union members peaked in 1979 at an estimated 21.0 million.

By 1860, on the eve of the Civil War, 16% of the people lived in cities with 2500 or more people and one third of the nation’s income came from manufacturing. Urbanized industry was limited primarily to the Northeast; cotton cloth production was the leading industry, with the manufacture of shoes, woolen clothing, and machinery also expanding. Most of the workers in the new factories were immigrants or their children.

Historians have recently argued that this comparison is inaccurate, especially when considered within the context of 1920s America. Increased tariffs to record highs in hopes of limiting foreign imports to the United States. Economists predicted that the tariffs would backfire by leading foreign governments to raise tariffs on US products sold abroad. Because the United States was a net exporter of both manufactured goods and agricultural products, the danger of damaging the export trade was greater than the possible benefit of reducing imports.

With the decreased demand, stock prices began to fall, and as more accurate information on the nature and extent of the decline was received, stock prices fell more. The late October crash made the decline occur much more rapidly, and the margin purchases and consequent forced selling of many of those stocks contributed to a more severe price fall. The recovery of stock prices from November 13 into April of 1930 suggests that stock prices may have been driven somewhat too low during the crash. Ownership of cars, new household appliances, and housing was spread widely through the population. New products and processes of producing those products drove this growth.

One of the important forces contributing to mass production and increased productivity was the transfer to electric power. By 1929 about 70 percent of manufacturing activity relied on electricity, compared to roughly 30 percent in 1914. Steam provided 80 percent of the mechanical drive capacity in manufacturing in 1900, but electricity provided over 50 percent by 1920 and 78 percent by 1929.

Changes in the supply of money in the economy do have an effect on economic activity. This effect works through the fluctuations of interest rates, which in turn cause fluctuations in business activity. Following a brief period of labor unrest and strikes resulting from the unemployment that followed World War I, public attitudes toward labor unions changed. During the 1920s union leaders were no longer viewed as heroic protectors of people’s rights. They were seen as holding radical political views and anti-American ideas that they had imported from overseas. Despite a lack of evidence and the undeniable influence of prejudice on the court proceedings, the two men were executed for the crime in 1927.