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While developed in the 1910's, Henry Ford's motor car production assembly line became crucial to the factory scene as it transformed the industry making the process by which goods were assembled much more efficient. Called “The greatest achievement in the annals of the industrial revolution” (Levy, 380), Ford pioneered a technology that would increase U.S. Manufacturing productivity by over 5%, which is the fastest rate of growth of any decade up until the present. -
Do to a variety of factors such as a return to the gold standard, expectation of future industrial growth due to the assembly line, and a speculative mindset for capital, the New York Stock Exchange crashed. There was no end in sight as “The U.S. unemployment rate, 2.9 percent in 1929, would soon surpass 15 percent. Virtually every known economic indicator went into free fall.” (Levy, 411). This sent not only the U.S into a spiral but affected the entire world and The Great Depression begun. -
Due to the Stock Market crash in 1929, the U.S fell into its worst financial depression to date. With extremely high unemployment rates and large amounts of price deflation, some believed that capitalism could be near its end. “In the summer of 1931, the British central banker Montagu Norman wrote to the head of the Banque de France, “Unless drastic measures are taken to save it, the capitalist system throughout the civilized world will be wrecked within a year.” (Levy, 411) -
Although the war started years earlier in Europe, the U.S declared neutrality at first only joining after the events of Pearl Harbor. “Once the United States entered the war, by the end of 1942—the fateful year of the so-called war of the factories—U.S. unemployment no longer existed.” (Levy, 496). The war had amazingly revived American Capitalism as factories were being paid by the military to produce the essentials for war and unemployment disappeared. -
At the conclusion of WWII, the U.S found itself at the topic of the global leaderboard as they had officially established themselves as a global superpower. “In 1945 the United States possessed roughly 70 percent of all gold reserves and half the entire world’s manufacturing capacity.” (Levy, 526). Not only did the U.S come out of the war victorious with having never been under attack on the homefront despite a few isolated incidents, but their economy was completely restored and in charge. -
While there isn't an exact date where it started, the U.S experienced another golden age during the 1950s. With high growth, stable wages, strong unions, and global industrial dominance the entire country was benefiting. “By historic standards, rates of productivity, profits, and median wage growth in the postwar era were high.” (Levy, 599). The idea of Nuclear Families were booming and life in the U.S seemed to be better than ever following years of hardship and struggle. -
In the 1970s, after years of industrial dominance and economic boom, the rise of the American industrial economic began to fall. People began to find other jobs that got them out of the factories as a structural shift had begun. “After 1973, not just industrial employment but industrial productivity, profits, and wages, by various measurements, all sagged.” (Levy, 619). Not only was the crisis “economic but also social, cultural, environmental, and political.” (Levy, 619). -
With computer companies like Yahoo! and Google gaining huge amount of popularity due to the new found functionality of the internet, investments in IT companies skyrocketed as new online markets were being explored and tested. While short term investments yielded positive capital income, "if confidence and belief ever faltered, the speculative investment boom might turn to bust—no short-term speculation, no long-term investment.” (Levy, 724). The bubble eventually burst crashing tech markets. -
The Financial Panic of 2007-8 is referred to as a perfect storm of financial mistakes and events that led to the worst financial panic since the great depression. Large scale credit defaults and mortgage related investments failed “threatening the destruction of the dollar-based global financial system both inside and outside the United States.” (Levy, 797). This crisis was huge and affected millions even leaving banks that were around for over a hundred years to close. -
In 2020, a global pandemic known as Covid-19 swept across the world sending time to a seeming hault. People were forced to quarantine inside their homes and business struggled. Restaurants and other similar businesses that required in person activity to function began to go under. Jobs were scarce as millions were let off and “unemployment numbers not seen since the Great Depression”(Levey, 829) had surged. While the pandemic ended and the economy recovered, covid marks an important shift.