America 250, 1979
Volcker's New Rule
On a Saturday in October 1979, the new Federal Reserve chairman changed how the Fed fought inflation. Interest rates reached about 20 percent, unemployment passed 10 percent, and inflation finally broke.
Business
Companies, the people who run them and the people who work for them.
From America 250
The full series
America 250, 1640
The Plantation Balance Sheet
A large plantation was not a farm with a house. It was a debt-financed operation that priced land, tools, and people on one set of books.
- 028Collectors Come into the Ports1673
- 031A Board to Watch the Colonies1696
- 056A Bank for the Public Debt1791
- 059The Gin Makes Upland Cotton Pay1793
- 064A Bank to Even Out the Money1816
- 068Mills and Wages on the Merrimack1823
- 072The Government’s Cash Leaves the Bank1833
- 094A Navy Around the Cotton1861
- 100The Bonds Ordinary People Bought1865
- 107Two Men Tried to Corner Gold1869
- 108One Company Set Out to Own the Oil1870
- 109The Construction Company That Paid Congress1872
- 113The Mill That Made Steel Cheap1875
- 129The First Company Capitalized Past a Billion1901
- 146Paying for It on Time1925
- 149Money That Could Be Called1929
- 155Help for the Institution1932
- 162The Refinanced House1933
- 167A Job on the Project1935
- 184The Contract That Included the Doctor1950
- 212The Thrifts1982
- 224The Fund That Had to Be Caught1998
- 230The House as a Bank2005
- 236The Carmakers2009