The Economic History Podcast with Fexingo: Past Recessions, Booms, and Lessons from History

In May 1926, 1.7 million British workers walked off the job in solidarity with coal miners facing wage cuts and longer hours. The nine-day general strike paralyzed railways, docks, and newspapers — and forced Parliament to pass the 1927 Trade Disputes Act, which banned sympathy strikes and mass picketing. This episode traces how the strike started, why Stanley Baldwin's government called it a 'con...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna revisit the 1973 oil embargo and its devastating economic consequences — not just the gas lines and stagflation, but the lesser-known story of how central banks were forced to abandon their traditional focus on interest rates and embrace money supply targets. They focus on the specific decision by then-Fed Chair Arthur Burns to loosen policy despite soaring inflatio...

In April 1962, President Kennedy faced off against the nation's largest steel companies when they raised prices despite his administration's plea for restraint. This episode dives into the tense three-day standoff that ended with U.S. Steel backing down, the antitrust threats and FBI investigations involved, and how the confrontation reshaped the relationship between the White House and corporate...

Long before there was a Federal Reserve or a Bank of England lender of last resort, a single bank failure in London in June 1772 triggered a chain reaction that shattered credit across Europe and the American colonies. This episode traces the collapse of the banking house Neal, James, Fordyce, and Down, and shows how a speculative mania in East India Company stock, combined with a web of short-ter...

In this episode of The Economic History Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore the 1914 emergency currency issuance—the Aldrich-Vreeland Act—that averted a financial collapse at the outbreak of World War I. They dive into how a forgotten 1908 law allowed banks to issue emergency notes backed by commercial paper and municipal bonds, preventing a repeat of the 1907 panic. The story reveals how a temporary...

In 1816, a massive volcanic eruption in Indonesia caused global temperatures to drop, leading to crop failures, food riots, and a severe economic crisis across the Northern Hemisphere. The episode explores how the 'Year Without a Summer' triggered the first wave of American protectionist tariffs, reshaped migration patterns, and gave rise to the Erie Canal. Lucas and Luna connect this climatic-eco...

In this episode of The Economic History Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore how a speculative mania for cotton and land in the 1830s led to the Panic of 1837, one of America's worst depressions. They focus on the role of President Andrew Jackson's Specie Circular — an 1836 executive order demanding gold or silver for federal land purchases — which triggered a credit crash. Lucas explains how the bubbl...

In 1942, the U.S. government faced a funding crisis for World War II and radically changed how Americans pay taxes: it invented payroll withholding. Before that, taxes were paid in lump sums, and most people barely filed returns. Lucas and Luna explore how a Treasury official named Beardsley Ruml pushed through the 'pay-as-you-go' system, why it nearly failed in Congress, and how a single wartime...

In 1797, the United States had no navy, no standing army, and a merchant fleet that was being plundered by French privateers. The Quasi-War, an undeclared naval conflict with Revolutionary France, forced the young republic to build a navy from scratch in under two years. This episode dives into the economics of that buildup: how Congress borrowed $800,000, how private shipyards like the one in Bal...

Most people trace the Industrial Revolution to steam engines or cotton mills. But Lucas and Luna dig into a less famous catalyst: the Carron Ironworks, founded in 1759 in Stirlingshire, Scotland. By 1761, Carron was producing cannons for the British navy using a new process that slashed costs and boosted output. The episode explores how this single factory changed military economics, labor markets...

When prices crashed after World War I, the US didn't bail out businesses or print money. Instead, the government cut spending, raised rates, and let the economy reset. The result was a brutal 18-month contraction followed by one of the fastest recoveries on record. Lucas and Luna unpack the 1920-1921 depression—a forgotten episode that challenges every assumption about how to fight a recession. Th...

In August 1971, President Nixon shocked the nation by imposing a 90-day freeze on wages, prices, and rents. This episode of The Economic History Podcast explores the origins of that decision, from a collapsing Bretton Woods system to rising unemployment and inflation. Lucas and Luna examine how controls failed to tame inflation, distorted markets with shortages, and eventually collapsed, setting t...

In 1837, a land bubble, a cotton crash, and Andrew Jackson's banking war triggered America's first truly national economic crisis — a depression that lasted six years and reshaped the country's financial architecture. Lucas and Luna walk through the chain reaction: how a speculative boom in Western land sales, fueled by easy credit from state-chartered banks, collapsed when the Bank of England rai...

Lucas and Luna revisit the 2000 dot-com crash, focusing on one company: Pets.com. They trace how venture capital flooded the sector, the fatal assumption that web traffic alone justified valuations, and why the aftermath reshaped Silicon Valley's approach to unit economics. Specific numbers: Pets.com burned $300 million in 18 months on $60 million in revenue. The episode draws parallels to the 202...

In 1923, Germany's hyperinflation reached its peak — prices doubled every few days, life savings evaporated, and a loaf of bread cost billions of marks. This episode examines the mechanics behind the collapse: how war reparations, passive resistance, and the Reichsbank's printing press created a self-feeding spiral. We trace the human toll — pensioners wiped out, speculators enriched, the middle c...

In 1913, after decades of financial panics, the US Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act. But the central bank we know today almost didn't exist. Episode 39 of The Economic History Podcast digs into the unlikely alliance that created the Fed: the secret meeting at Jekyll Island, the resistance from populist farmers, and the last-minute political compromises that shaped a system still governing U...

In October 1902, 140,000 coal miners walked off the job in Pennsylvania, shutting down half the nation's anthracite supply as winter approached. President Theodore Roosevelt stepped in — not with troops to break the strike, but with an unprecedented commission that gave miners a wage hike while recognizing no union. This episode unpacks how that strike rewrote the rules of federal labor interventi...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna revisit the Savings and Loan Crisis of the 1980s and early 1990s, which cost American taxpayers over $150 billion. They focus on the specific deregulatory moves—like the Garn-St. Germain Act of 1982—that allowed thrifts to gamble on risky commercial real estate and junk bonds. Lucas explains how the 'moral hazard' problem played out in real time, with directors of i...

In August 1981, 13,000 air traffic controllers walked off the job, and President Reagan fired them all within 48 hours. This episode of The Economic History Podcast with Fexingo examines the PATCO strike not just as a labor showdown, but as a pivotal moment in the economics of bargaining power, wage setting, and the decline of organized labor in the United States. Lucas and Luna walk through the s...

Episode 35 takes us to 1966, when a quiet squeeze in bank lending triggered something that had never happened before: banks actually turned away customers. Lucas and Luna unpack the 'credit crunch' that forced the Federal Reserve to invent modern monetary targeting, reshaped how banks manage liquidity, and gave us the vocabulary we still use today—from certificates of deposit to the federal funds...

Episode 34 of The Economic History Podcast explores the Panic of 1907, a financial crisis that nearly collapsed the US banking system. Lucas and Luna break down the specific trigger: the failed attempt to corner the copper market by F. Augustus Heinze and Charles Morse, which brought down the Knickerbocker Trust. They focus on two key figures: J.P. Morgan, who organized a private bailout from his...

In episode 33, Lucas and Luna revisit the forgotten depression of 1920-21—a severe recession that saw unemployment hit 11.7%, industrial production drop 23%, and wholesale prices collapse by 40%. Unlike the 1930s, the government slashed spending, raised interest rates, and did almost nothing. The result? A rapid V-shaped recovery. The hosts examine the mechanics: the Federal Reserve’s sharp discou...

Episode 32 of The Economic History Podcast takes you inside the Panic of 1873 — the banking crisis that spiraled into a global depression lasting six years. Lucas and Luna unpack the collapse of Jay Cooke & Company, the role of railroad overbuilding and speculative lending, the failure of the Coinage Act of 1873 to stabilize the currency, and why this episode became known as the 'Great Depression'...

In 1937, the US economy was finally climbing out of the Great Depression. Then it fell off a cliff. This episode unpacks the 'recession within a depression' — how FDR's policy pivot, premature austerity, and Fed tightening snuffed out a recovery that was just finding its footing. We look at the specific trigger: the Federal Reserve doubling reserve requirements in 1936 and 1937, and the Treasury's...

In 1879, the U.S. government redeemed greenback dollars for gold at par for the first time since the Civil War — a bet that ended years of deflationary chaos and restored global trust in American currency. Lucas and Luna trace how Treasury Secretary John Sherman orchestrated a four-year buildup of gold reserves, why the timing mattered for railroads and farmers, and what the episode reveals about...