Economy
America added 29,000 jobs. That sounds big. It isn’t.
Employers are barely hiring. People who already have a job are mostly safe. People looking for one are not. This is the whole story, in ordinary words.
Economy
Jobs, prices, wages and the household budget.
From America 250
The full series
America 250, 1973
The Embargo
In October 1973, Arab oil producers cut supply and stopped shipments to the United States. Within months the price of a barrel had roughly quadrupled, and Americans learned how much of their life ran on imported oil.
America 250, 1929
The Week the Prices Broke
In the last week of October 1929, the stock market lost a quarter of its value in two days. Most Americans owned no stock. Almost all of them paid for what came next.
America 250, 1676
Bacon’s Rebellion
In 1676, Virginia’s frontier and Virginia’s elite went to war with each other. Jamestown burned. The labor system that followed was not an accident.
America 250, 1630
The Nutrient Vampire
Tobacco did not just tire the soil. Worn-out fields became the reason to take the next tract, and then the one after that.
America 250, 1616
The Monoculture Trap
Tobacco gave Jamestown a price. Then the price pushed food, safety, and the company itself off the land.
America 250, 1612
The Stolen Seed
John Rolfe planted a tobacco the English market would actually buy. The story of a single theft under a death sentence is mostly legend. The boom that followed was not.
America 250, 1609
The Starving Time
In the winter of 1609, the Virginia Company’s colony collapsed inside its own fort. About sixty people walked out. The company kept raising money.
America 250, 1607
The Jamestown Gamble
Virginia Company investors bet £6,000 on a colony that nearly starved to death. The share price held. The people inside the fort did not.
- 018The Attack Along the James1622
- 020The Charter Crossed the Ocean1630
- 024A Colony Coins Its Own Silver1652
- 026England Takes New Amsterdam1664
- 033A Frontier Trade Collapses1715
- 035The Slave Voyage as a Business1730
- 037Parliament Kills a Farmers’ Bank1740
- 039A Land Grant on the Ohio1749
- 041The War Bill Comes Due1763
- 044A Tax on Ordinary Paper1765
- 047Cloth Made in the House1769
- 049Boston’s Harbor Is Shut1774
- 050Money Printed Before Any Tax1775
- 052The War Paper Changes Hands1783
- 053Coin Taxes Close the Courts1786
- 057A Tax on the Whiskey Barrel1791
- 060Fifteen Million for the River1803
- 063A War Paid in Shaky Paper1812
- 066New York Digs a Water Road1817
- 067Cotton Falls and the Loans Are Called1819
- 070Native Land Becomes Land for Sale1830
- 075The Banks Stop Paying Silver1837
- 076The Hard Years That Would Not Lift1840
- 078The Duty Went Back Up1842
- 079Texas Came In as Land1845
- 080A Tariff Written to Raise Money1846
- 081The Line at Forty-Nine1846
- 082The Land the War Bought1848
- 086Acres If You Stayed and Plowed1850
- 087A Strip Bought for a Southern Track1854
- 089The Year the Banks Shut the Window1857
- 093The Tariff the War Grew Up On1861
- 095Paper the Treasury Called Money1862
- 097A Hundred and Sixty Acres, If You Lasted1862
- 098The Government Paid the Road West1862
- 103Laws Written to Hold the Wage Down1866
- 104A Northern Coast Bought from Russia1867
- 106The Rails Met in Utah1869
- 111The Railroad Banker Broke the Market1873
- 116A Small, Forced Purchase of Silver1878
- 121The Treasury Had to Buy the Silver1890
- 122The High Wall Around Imports1890
- 124The Year the Gold Reserve Shook1893
- 131A Private Banker Had to Stop the Run1907
- 132A Revision That Mostly Kept the Wall1909
- 139The War Grocery1917
- 141The Wage Up North1916
- 142The Raise That Bought Less1919
- 143The Crop Stopped Paying the Mortgage1920
- 152No Check When the Job Ended1930
- 154The Certificate That Would Not Cash1932
- 160The Check for Not Planting1933
- 161The Wage Sent Home1933
- 168The Line to the Farm1936
- 169The Bonus, Cashed1936
- 170The Recovery Broke1937
- 173The Coupon Book1942
- 174The Second Move for a Wage1942
- 176The Bond You Were Asked Not to Spend1944
- 179When the Ceilings Came Off1946
- 181The House and the Monthly Note1947
- 185Buying Before It Disappeared1950
- 187A Layoff That Came with a Check1954
- 188The Road and the Tax in the Gallon1956
- 191The Mill Goes Quiet1959
- 193When the Weeks Ran Out1961
- 198The Tax Came Late1968
- 199The Slump That Did Not Cool Prices1970
- 200Gold Starts to Leave1971
- 202The Dollar Floats1973
- 204Prices Up, Jobs Down1974
- 208The Price of a Loan1980
- 210The Recession That Did the Job1982
- 216The Wall Falls1989
- 217A Recovery Without the Jobs1990
- 219The Shop Floor Crosses the Border1994
- 227The Week the Markets Closed2001
- 228China Comes In2001
- 231The Top2006
- 240The Tariffs on China2018
- 241Stay Home2020
- 243The Prices2022
- 247From Seventy-Two Toward One Twenty2026
- 250What a Child Inherits2026