New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Economic History

The Great Depression in New York City: A Primer

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Crowd in front of the New York Stock Exchange, October 1929As the 1920s advanced, the economy soared. But with that dramatic expansion came irrational exuberance and unchecked speculation: stock prices reached levels that had no basis in reality; margin purchases were rampant; banks handed out loans lavishly and imprudently; and giddy product production resulted in a vast oversupply of goods.

On Tuesday, October 29, 1929, it all came crashing down. This is the story of the Great Depression in New York City. [Read more…] about The Great Depression in New York City: A Primer

The Panic of 1893: Among The Most Severe Financial Crises U.S. History

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Drawing in Frank Leslie's of panicked stockbrokers on May 9, 1893 during the Panic of 1893New York Gov. Roswell Flower used his keynote speech to a national audience on “New York Day” at the Chicago World’s Fair to downplay the threat of the Panic of 1893, which started the nation’s worst depression up to that time.

“This business men of this country deserve the greatest praise for the manner in which they have held their heads above water during these frightful days,” he said, speaking on September 5, 1893. [Read more…] about The Panic of 1893: Among The Most Severe Financial Crises U.S. History

Citigroup Acknowledges it ‘Indirectly’ Profited from Slavery – Maybe

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Newly arrived enslaved Africans being prepared for sale in CubaCitigroup now acknowledges that its predecessor banks may have indirectly profited from slavery and the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Connections with slavery include a 19th century bank president who promoted the Cuban sugar trade, the relationship between the Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company, one of Citigroup’s predecessor banks, and Alabama cotton planters, and Lehman Brothers, which merged with Citibank in 1998 and in the 1850s traded in cotton. [Read more…] about Citigroup Acknowledges it ‘Indirectly’ Profited from Slavery – Maybe

Railroad Records at the National Archives: A Primer

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At a loading platform at Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri, an old engine pulls a train from New York which will connect with the Southwest Limited which runs between Chicago and Los Angeles, June 1974The National Archives’ Cartographic Branch contains more than 69 record groups and 215 series that include maps, architectural and engineering drawings, and aerial photographs that all relate to railroads in the United States, with widespread coverage of regions all over the world. The dates of these records range from 1828 to 2009, with the bulk of records covering other countries and regions from the early to mid 20th century. [Read more…] about Railroad Records at the National Archives: A Primer

New York City In the Roaring 20s: A Primer

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Jazz, the Charleston, flappers, prohibition and a lot moreAs the ravages of the First World War and the 1918 Influenza Pandemic receded into the past, a new spirit gripped New York City. Energy seemed to infuse every aspect of city life, from business to leisure and everything in between. For a decade, New Yorkers by and large lived, worked and partied with abandon. [Read more…] about New York City In the Roaring 20s: A Primer

Hudson River Steamboats & Gibbons v. Ogden: 200 Years of the Commerce Clause

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Historical Society of the New York CourtsOne of the world’s first steamboats successfully completed a maiden voyage on the river Clyde in Scotland in 1798. That same year, Chancellor Robert R. Livingston proposed to the New York Legislature that he would develop a new form of public transportation, the steamboat ferry, in return for a monopoly on steam navigation in New York waters. Despite the Legislature’s skepticism that steamboat technology was viable, legislation granting Livingston the monopoly was enacted. [Read more…] about Hudson River Steamboats & Gibbons v. Ogden: 200 Years of the Commerce Clause

Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the 20th Century

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Slouching Towards UtopiaBefore 1870, humanity lived in dire poverty, with a slow crawl of invention offset by a growing population. Then came a great shift: invention sprinted forward, doubling our technological capabilities each generation and utterly transforming the economy again and again. Our ancestors would have presumed we would have used such powers to build utopia. But it was not so. When 1870 – 2010 ended, the world instead saw global warming; economic depression, uncertainty, and inequality; and broad rejection of the status quo.

Brad DeLong’s Slouching Towards Utopia (Basic Books, 2022) tells the story of how this unprecedented explosion of material wealth occurred, how it transformed the globe and why it failed to deliver us to utopia. [Read more…] about Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the 20th Century

New York Pork: A Porcine History of the Big Apple

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Members of George Waring’s ‘sanitation army’ cleaning the streets of New YorkIn 1895 New York City’s newly appointed reformist Mayor William Lafayette Strong nominated engineer and Civil War veteran Colonel George Waring to take on the demanding post of Sanitation Commissioner.

A native of Pound Ridge in Westchester County, Waring had fine-tuned his skills as a landscape and drainage (sewage) engineer having been involved with the construction of Manhattan’s Central Park. [Read more…] about New York Pork: A Porcine History of the Big Apple

NYS Public Authorities Debt Has Ballooned to $329 Billion

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New York State ComptrollerState 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

Peter Bauer: Lame, Tired, And Wrong Blame-The-Adirondack Park Editorializing Persists

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AA-2020-NYS-Census-Map 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