Episodes

  • The 1825 Panic That Created Modern Business Cycles

    The 1825 Panic That Created Modern Business Cycles
    Jul 1 2026
    In this episode of The Economic History Podcast, Lucas and Luna dive into the Panic of 1825 — the first modern financial crisis driven by a speculative bubble in Latin American mining stocks and a credit expansion from the Bank of England. They explore how this panic, which brought down hundreds of banks and exposed the fragility of the young joint-stock banking system, laid the groundwork for our understanding of boom-bust cycles. Lucas explains the role of the Bank of England's belated discount rate hike, the contagion through the bill market, and how the crisis reshaped British banking law — including the end of the 'six partners' rule. Luna draws parallels to the 2008 subprime crisis and the 1998 Long-Term Capital Management collapse, showing how the 1825 panic's pattern of speculation, credit tightening, and systemic contagion still echoes today. A must-listen for anyone wondering why financial crises keep happening. #PanicOf1825 #BankOfEngland #FinancialCrises #BusinessCycles #SpeculativeBubbles #LatinAmericanMining #JointStockBanks #DiscountRate #CreditContraction #EconomicHistory #Economics #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #LucasAndLuna #BoomBustCycle #BankingLaw #Contagion #1825Crisis Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
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    6 mins
  • The 1944 Bretton Woods System That Failed Too Fast

    The 1944 Bretton Woods System That Failed Too Fast
    Jul 1 2026
    Episode 84 of The Economic History Podcast with Fexingo: Past Recessions, Booms, and Lessons from History dives into the 1944 Bretton Woods conference and the dollar-gold system it created. Lucas and Luna explore why an arrangement designed to stabilise global currencies for a generation collapsed in just 27 years. They focus on the 'Triffin dilemma' — the fatal flaw Belgian economist Robert Triffin identified in 1960 — and trace how America's balance of payments deficits, the Vietnam War, and French gold hoarding forced President Nixon to close the gold window in August 1971. Specific figures: the $35 per ounce gold peg, the $7 billion U.S. gold stock in 1948 versus liabilities of $50 billion by 1960, and the $2.5 billion gold drain in 1965 alone. Listeners will understand why the Bretton Woods design was inherently unstable and how its collapse reshaped modern currency markets. #BrettonWoods #EconomicHistory #DollarGoldSystem #TriffinDilemma #RobertTriffin #NixonShock #GoldWindow #IMF #WorldBank #FixedExchangeRates #BalanceOfPayments #VietnamWar #FrenchGold #JohnMaynardKeynes #WhitePlan #Economics #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
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    9 mins
  • The 1913 Ford Five-Dollar Day That Doubled Wages

    The 1913 Ford Five-Dollar Day That Doubled Wages
    Jun 30 2026
    In January 1914, Henry Ford announced he would pay his factory workers $5 per day — more than double the prevailing wage. Critics called it reckless; within two years, Ford's profits surged and turnover collapsed. This episode unpacks the economics behind one of the most famous labor experiments in history: how a wage hike reshaped productivity, consumption, and the very idea of what a company owes its workers. Lucas and Luna examine the data, the backlash, and the lasting lesson for modern minimum wage debates. #HenryFord #FordMotorCompany #FiveDollarDay #LaborEconomics #MinimumWage #Productivity #EfficiencyWages #IndustrialRevolution #Detroit #1914 #HighlandParkPlant #MassProduction #ProfitSharing #Turnover #Economics #EconomicHistory #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
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    9 mins
  • The 1957 Sputnik Shock That Created American Science Policy

    The 1957 Sputnik Shock That Created American Science Policy
    Jun 30 2026
    When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 in October 1957, the US economy was already in recession. The satellite's beep from orbit did more than embarrass American engineers—it triggered a massive government spending shift that reshaped R&D funding, university research, and the human capital pipeline for decades. Lucas and Luna examine how the National Defense Education Act of 1958 poured a billion dollars into education and science infrastructure, creating the template for modern federal research policy. They trace the path from Sputnik's launch to the formation of NASA, DARPA, and the dramatic increase in NSF appropriations—and ask whether today's competitive threats produce the same kind of sustained investment response. #Sputnik #1957Recession #NationalDefenseEducationAct #DARPA #NASA #SciencePolicy #RAndDSpending #ColdWarEconomics #HumanCapital #FederalResearch #NationalScienceFoundation #Eisenhower #Economics #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #EconomicHistory #EducationFunding #InnovationEconomics Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
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    10 mins
  • The 1910 Rubber Boom That Transformed the Amazon

    The 1910 Rubber Boom That Transformed the Amazon
    Jun 29 2026
    In this episode of The Economic History Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore the 1910 Amazon rubber boom—a speculative frenzy that turned a remote jungle commodity into the engine of Brazil's economy and then collapsed when British plantations in Southeast Asia broke the monopoly. They trace how Manaus became one of the world's richest cities, complete with opulent opera houses and electric streetlights before most of Europe, and why the bust left a ghost economy that still haunts the region today. The episode focuses on the specific mechanics of the boom: how wild rubber tapping, debt peonage, and a cartel-like control of seeds created an unsustainable bubble. When Henry Wickham smuggled rubber seeds out of Brazil in 1876 and the British established efficient plantations in Malaya and Ceylon, the Amazon's comparative advantage evaporated. By 1913, rubber prices had fallen 70 percent, and Manaus fell into a century-long decline. Lucas and Luna discuss the parallels with modern commodity booms, the role of geography and institutions in economic development, and the human cost of extractive economies. #AmazonRubberBoom #EconomicCollapse #CommodityBubble #Manaus #HenryWickham #Brazil #SoutheastAsia #PlantationEconomics #ExtractiveEconomy #DebtPeonage #SpeculativeFrenzy #RubberTapping #GlobalTrade #EconomicHistory #ResourceCurse #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #Economics Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
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    12 mins
  • The 1816 Year Without a Summer and Global Economic Collapse

    The 1816 Year Without a Summer and Global Economic Collapse
    Jun 29 2026
    In 1816, a massive volcanic eruption in Indonesia triggered global climate disruption, leading to crop failures, food riots, and a severe economic depression across Europe and North America. Lucas and Luna explore how the 'Year Without a Summer' devastated agricultural economies, sparked mass migration from New England to the Midwest, and indirectly influenced early monetary policy debates. They examine the role of the Tambora eruption, the subsequent grain price spikes, and the social unrest that challenged governments. The episode ties this historical crisis to modern questions about climate shocks and economic resilience, revealing how a single natural disaster can reshape trade patterns, fiscal policy, and human migration for decades. #YearWithoutASummer #TamboraEruption #1816 #ClimateEconomics #AgriculturalDepression #FoodRiots #NewEnglandMigration #EconomicHistory #VolcanicWinter #GrainPrices #MonetaryPolicy #GlobalTrade #SocialUnrest #Famine #CropFailure #Economics #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
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    8 mins
  • The 1842 Philadelphia Bank Strike That Rewrote Lending

    The 1842 Philadelphia Bank Strike That Rewrote Lending
    Jun 28 2026
    In May 1842, Philadelphia’s banks collectively suspended specie payments, triggering a chain reaction that reshaped American banking law for decades. At the center was a single institution: the Bank of the United States of Pennsylvania, a reincarnation of Nicholas Biddle’s former national bank, which had collapsed under its own weight. This episode unpacks how the suspension of convertibility — banks refusing to exchange notes for gold or silver — forced states to adopt free banking laws, ultimately creating the patchwork state-chartered system that defined antebellum finance. We trace the mechanics of the crisis, the political fallout, and the surprising legacy: a precedent for deposit insurance and the first whiff of federal banking regulation. Specific names, dates, and dollar figures anchor the story, including the bank’s $42 million in liabilities and the 1842 Pennsylvania Bank Suspension Act. #1842PhiladelphiaBankStrike #NicholasBiddle #BankOfTheUnitedStatesOfPennsylvania #SpecieSuspension #FreeBanking #AntebellumFinance #BankingPanic #PennsylvaniaBankSuspensionAct #1840sEconomicHistory #BankingRegulation #DepositInsurance #EconomicHistory #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #HistoryPodcast #USBankingHistory #FinancialCrises #Lending Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
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    11 mins
  • The 1914 Cocoa Crash That Changed West African Trade

    The 1914 Cocoa Crash That Changed West African Trade
    Jun 28 2026
    In 1914, as World War I erupted in Europe, global cocoa prices collapsed by nearly 70 percent in a matter of weeks. The British colony of the Gold Coast — today's Ghana — had just enjoyed a decade-long cocoa boom that made it the world's largest producer. Small farmers who had invested everything in cocoa trees suddenly faced ruin. This episode traces how a single commodity crash reshaped West African agriculture, forced the colonial government to invent a new system of price controls and marketing boards, and planted the seeds for Ghana's post-independence economic structure. We focus on one specific moment: the founding of the Gold Coast Cocoa Association in 1916, a farmer-led cooperative that became a template for agricultural policy across the British Empire. #CocoaCrash1914 #GoldCoast #Ghana #WorldWarI #AgriculturalHistory #CommodityMarkets #PriceCollapse #CocoaFarmers #ColonialEconomics #MarketingBoards #Cooperatives #BritishEmpire #WestAfrica #EconomicHistory #CommodityBust #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #Economy Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
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    8 mins