In the last two decades, the Federal Reserve has intervened extensively in American financial markets in the face of relatively unique crises. Its reaction to these crises included the deployment of new programs which were markedly distinct in their scope from the Fed’s day-to-day operations. Few public institutions are able to operate as quickly and…
In 2008, the United States produced 18 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Just over ten years later, this had grown to 34 trillion cubic feet. An even more spectacular rise took place in oil production over those years. Much of this growth was the result of new production techniques, namely hydraulic fracturing, that made…
Colonial America was not awash in corporate entities of any kind; no country was. However, one of the oldest corporations in America, one even older than the Unites States itself, was also among the first life insurance firms in the world. The establishment of the Presbyterian Ministers’ Fund is a significant event in the history…
After the start of the First World War, numerous countries’ monetary authorities suspended their gold standards. Many reverted back to gold after the war only to abandon it once more during the Great Depression. During this era, the question of what money was, and what it should or shouldn’t be, were debated more than ever…
Developing countries and smaller developed country governments often issue bonds in other currencies than their own. This allows investors to separate out the credit risk from the currency, inflation, and interest-rate risk of a particular country. An investor in developing country ‘hard-currency’ bonds, for example, can buy such bonds to take a view of the…
Almost fifty years ago, America’s largest city was on the brink of bankruptcy, about to default on a massive debt repayment with only one-tenth of the cash on hand required to make good on it. The day of reckoning had come after years of high spending relative to depressed revenues. New York City was billions…
Few dates are as important in the history of the American stock market, at least for ordinary retail investors, as May 1, 1975. “May Day” brought about the abolition of fixed commissions, the high charges for trading in ordinary stocks and mutual funds defended by the keeper of the kingdom, the New York Stock Exchange.…
Though invented in China a millennia ago, paper money was viewed with suspicion for centuries thereafter. With its issuance potentially unlimited, how could its value be maintained? The question was grappled with in colonial Quebec, which resorted to using paper money made from ordinary playing cards in order to make up for a chronic shortage…
Companies in the United States are peculiarly reliant on capital markets to obtain debt financing. Whereas large firms elsewhere often turn to banks for loans, even mid-sized companies in America find it easier to float bonds. Many cite the relative lack of large ‘universal banks’ in the United States, at least up until the recent…
Just a few months after the American War of Independence finally came to a formal conclusion with the Treaty of Paris in 1783, a bank was founded that would live to today. The Bank of New York had humble origins, founded with under $500,000 in equity capital. However, it had an illustrious backer and a…
