State and local public authorities reported debt outstanding totaling more than $329 billion in their most recently reported fiscal years, an increase of 23% ($61.5 billion) since 2017, according to a report released today by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. [Read more…] about NYS Public Authorities Debt Has Ballooned to $329 Billion
Economic History
Peter Bauer: Lame, Tired, And Wrong Blame-The-Adirondack Park Editorializing Persists
In the Adirondacks, I thought we had moved beyond weak economic and social analysis that blames the Adirondack Park for all of the problems and challenges facing Adirondack communities.
I thought that many in the Adirondacks had looked at long-term national rural population and economic trends and learned that the issues facing Adirondack communities are the same issues facing Rural America – and that the first decades of the 21st Century in the U.S. have proved extremely difficult and challenging times for Rural America. [Read more…] about Peter Bauer: Lame, Tired, And Wrong Blame-The-Adirondack Park Editorializing Persists
The Fulton Fish Market: A History
The Fulton Fish Market stands out as an iconic New York institution. At first a neighborhood retail market for many different kinds of food, it became the nation’s largest fish and seafood wholesaling center by the late nineteenth century.
Waves of immigrants worked at the Fulton Fish Market and then introduced the rest of the city to their seafood traditions. In popular culture, the market — celebrated by Joseph Mitchell in The New Yorker — conjures up images of the bustling East River waterfront, late-night fishmongering, organized crime, and a vanished working-class New York. [Read more…] about The Fulton Fish Market: A History
The First Slave Traders in New York
The first direct shipment of enslaved Africans arrived in New Amsterdam (now New York City) in 1655. The voyage of the White Horse came in the wake of significant changes in the Dutch Atlantic. In this eessay, American historian Dennis Maika outlines how family and business connections shaped the development of a slave-trading center in Manhattan.
New Amsterdam’s residents would have immediately noticed something different about the arrival of the Witte Paert (White Horse) in the early summer of 1655. The stench of human excrement and illness emanating from the newly arrived “scheepgen” (small ship), left little doubt that a slaver had arrived after a long voyage. [Read more…] about The First Slave Traders in New York
Early America’s Trade With China
In this episode of Ben Franklin’s World, Dael Norwood, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Delaware, joins Liz Covart to explore the lure of trade with China with details from his book, Trading Freedom: How Trade with China Defined Early America (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2022).
The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton
In this episode of Ben Franklin’s World, Andrew Porwancher, the Wick Cary Associate Professor of History at the University of Oklahoma and the Ernest May Fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center, joins Liz Covart to investigate the Jewish world and upbringing of Alexander Hamilton using details from his book, The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton (Princeton, 2021). [Read more…] about The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton
The Founding Document of the NY Stock Exchange
This week on The Historians Podcast, regular New York Almanack contributor Jim Kaplan has the story of the Buttonwood Agreement, the founding document of the New York Stock Exchange. [Read more…] about The Founding Document of the NY Stock Exchange
The 1950 Census Has Been Released – Here’s How To Get It
According to the “72-Year Rule,” the National Archives releases census records to the general public 72 years after Census Day. As a result, the 1950 census records was released on April 1, 2022. The 1950 census was the first released in a digital, searchable form (name and place) from the outset. Previous censuses required time consuming and error introducing transcriptions and indexing.
Since the first census in 1790, the U.S. Census Bureau has collected data using a census “schedule,” also formally called a “questionnaire” or popularly called a “form.” Between 1790 and 1820, U.S. Marshals conducting the census were responsible for supplying paper and writing-in headings related to the questions asked (i.e., name, age, sex, race, etc.). In 1830, Congress authorized the printing of uniform schedules for use throughout the United States. [Read more…] about The 1950 Census Has Been Released – Here’s How To Get It
Wall Street History: The Great Depression & A New Deal For Working People
In 1933, during Franklin D. Roosevelt‘s first year as President, the Democrats launched a number of New Deal social welfare and economic recovery efforts to combat the Great Depression.
Among the more popular and successful of these was the creation of the Public Works Administration (PWA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), jobs programs which were modeled on similar programs in New York State. [Read more…] about Wall Street History: The Great Depression & A New Deal For Working People
The First Great Reset: Wall St, the Great Depression & the Pecora Commission
Initially many thought the severe Wall Street crash of October 1929 was a temporary phenomenon and like many subsequent crashes (i.e. 1987, 2008) the stock market would recover in a few months or years.
Unfortunately, this did not prove to be the case. After some upward spurts, stocks on the New York Stock Exchange continued to fall for the next three years and economic conditions throughout the country continued to worsen, so that by 1932 the market closed at 41, a drop of 89% over its 1929 high of 381. Employment in Wall Street firms plummeted, as the once heady activity evaporated and the Great Depression took hold.
The response would require a great reset between Wall Street and working Americans. [Read more…] about The First Great Reset: Wall St, the Great Depression & the Pecora Commission