AP US History - Economic History
Terms
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- Populists
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The peoples party; formed in 1892;
1. supported a graduated income tax
2. bank regulations
3. govt ownership of some companies,
4. restrictions on immigration
5. shorter work days
6. and a voting reform - Gilded Age
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years between civil war and World War I
institutions undertook financial manipulations that went virtually unchecked by govt
era produced many infamous actvities in the security markets
marked by growth of industry which supported materialism and political corruption - Silverties
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Supported by Democrats and Populists
The leader - William Bryan
- Favored establishment of silver as monterary standard - Gold Bug
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Defenders of the gold standard in the 19th century
Made up of bankers and industrialists - Progressives
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Organized by Republican insurgents in 1911
Supported Teddy Roosevelt in 1912
AKA - Bull Moose Party - Billion-Dollar Congress
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Name given to congress when they met from 1889 to 1891 because of lavish spending on:
1. internal improvements,
2.naval building,
3. pensions - McKinley Tariff
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Bill in 1890 that added to many products to the "not taxed" list
Led to sharp rising of product prices - Sherman Anti-Trust Act
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Prevented Monopolies on any market
Used by the government to break up large corporations
Outlawed any contract, combination, or conspiracy in restraint of trade or commerce among several states or with foreign nations - Teddy Roosevelt
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McKinelys's Vice President
Youngest President ever
Became pres in 1901
Strengthened executive branch through personality and his progressive agenda - William Taft
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27th President
Defended the Payne-Aldrich Tariff - Payne-Aldrich Tariff
- Compromise between two bills by Payne and Aldrich, decreased the prices on some tariffs, however, increased numerous more
- Federal Reserve Act
- establishment of Federal Reserve Banks, to furnish a commercial paper currency, and to supervise US Banking
- Clayton Anti-Trust Act
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Law forbids every contract, scheme, deal, conspiracy, to restrain trade.
Also forbids conspiracies to secure monopoly of a given industry. - Federal Trade Commission
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An outline of what should and shoudn't be done in fair trade.
A commision was set up by Pres. Woodrow Wilson to enforce fair trade - Federal Farm Loan Act
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Established in 1916
Created 12 Farm Loan Banks to serve members of Farm Loan Associations
Farmers could borrow up to 50% of the value of land and 20% of the value of their improvements - Income Tax of 1916
- Passed under the Wilson Administration that would take a percentage of money out of a person's salary
- Teapot Dome Scandal
- Involved the leasing of naval-oil-reserve-lands to a private oil company. The secretary of the interior, who had been appointed by Harding, Albert Fall, was later jailed for taking bribes to approve the leases
- Laissez-Faire capitalism
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Free enterprise system
policy that government should interfere as little as possible in the nation's economy
The govt can protect private property rights and maintain peace - Second Industrial Revoultion
- Britain had the first, USA followed. Foreign investors saw more opportunity for profit and growth in the US than at home.
- Vanderbilt and the Railroad
- Vanderbilt's railroad investments brought home power and wealth - Had over 4,500 miles of railroad track and took in over $100 million
- Standard Oil
- The company's product set the industry standard
- Bessemer Process
- Efficient method of making steel, developed by British inventor Bessemer and American Kelly
- US Steel
- American steel production skyrocketed from about 15,000 tons in 1865 to more than 28 million tons by 1910
- Gospel of Wealth
- Essay written by Andrew Carnegie, which insisted that the wealthy had a solemn obligation to use their riches for the advancement of society
- Social Darwinism
- Theory adopted by philospher Herbert Spencer from Charles Darwin's theory of evoultion, argued that society progressed through competition with the fittest rising to positions of wealth and power
- Myth of the Self-Made man
- Every American could attain untold riches if sufficently working and ambitious. Unionization and radical idelogy spead
- London Economic Congress
- 66 nations met in London that revealed how throughly FDR's early foreign policy was subordinated to his strategy for domestic ecnomic recovery
- Vertical integration
- Ownership of business involved in each step of a manufacturing process
- Horizontal integration
- Ownership of several companies making the same product
- Trusts
- Arrangement grouping several companies under one board of directors to eliminate competition and to regulate production
- Cartels
- combinations of independent buisness organizations formed to regulate production, pricing, and marketing of goods
- Panic of 1893 and Resulting Depression
- One of the country's leading railroad companies failed. This led to a financial panic that sent stock prices plunging.
- Global Depression
- many countries went into ecnomic depression after WWI
- Income Gap and Consumer Debt
- Unequal distribution of income. The reliance on consumer credit contributed to economic debts
- Business Cycle
- Better financial planning in the 1920's wouldn't have prevented the depression. There were regular "ups and downs" of business in a free-enterprise economy
- Increasing Joblessness
- America went from 1.5 to 15 million people without jobs
- Life in the City
- Faced unemployment and poverty
- Family Strains
- Many families broke up because of so much stress and problems
- Hoover: Responsive measures
- believed sucess comes through invidual effort and private enterprise
- Taft-Hartley Act
- pro-business act - permitted states to pass the "right to war" laws outlawing the union shop
- Eisenhower Prosperity
- Country enjoyed a steady growth rate
- War on Poverty
- Self-help programs for the poor under Johnson
- Voodoo Ecnomomics
- tax cuts reduced government spending, increased investment by the private sector
- Budget Deficits - Gramm Rudman Hollings Balanced Budget Act - kept ferderal deficit under control
- Reagan's tax cuts combined with large increases in military spending created federal deficits of over $200 billion dollars a year.