How Progressives Legalized Usury
In the early twentieth century, reformers united with capitalists to promote high-interest lending, overthrowing opposition to usury rooted in Christian tradition.
Demystifying Sovereign Wealth Funds
Opaque, state-controlled investment vehicles, sovereign wealth funds wield enough power to redirect or disrupt global economies.
A People’s Bank at the Post Office
The Postal Savings System offered depositors a US government-backed guarantee of security, but it was undone by for-profit private banks.
The Magic of a Crooked Sixpence
Coins were used for centuries in many ritual contexts, but the English silver sixpence was a particularly common charm—for several reasons.
Fruit Geopeelitics: America’s Banana Republics
The one-way movement of wealth in the banana trade contributed to the political and economic conditions that challenged its hegemony after World War II.
Why is the US Dollar So Strong?
Not only did post-World War II policy give the United States a managerial position in the world order, it gave it an outsize role in shaping the global economy.
Radhakamal Mukerjee and Indian Intellectual Independence
Sociologist Radhakamal Mukerjee helped shape a new view of sociology from an Indian perspective, contributing to the independence movement.
What’s Behind the Pandemic Puzzle Craze?
Puzzles, or “dissected maps,” were invented in Georgian-era England, probably by a mapmaker named John Spilsbury in the early 1760s.
Why There Is No “Countervailing Power” Against Monopolies
The New Deal revolutions in law and policy were so successful that the economist John Kenneth Galbraith took their accomplishment for granted.