Slavery
Cotton Gin
This business emerged as mass production made it possible for huge amounts of goods to be produced - in part, it worked by creating demand for products where none had previously existed.
Marketing or Advertising
According to Waterhouse, an important underlying cause of Financialization was that wealthy people wanted to put their money somewhere other than into a regular bank during the 1970s as a result of this prevailing bad economic condition.
Stagflation
Cryptocurrency is made possible by a shared ledger of transactions updated by multiple users who each have their own cryptographic key that conceals their identity. The ledger is called:
The Blockchain
Henry Ford used two key innovations to make production of his Model Ts better than everyone else's. Name one of them.
The moving assembly line
The $5 Day (sometimes called "welfare capitalism")
Marxism classically argues that slavery cannot exist in a capitalist society because...
Workers have to be able to sell their labor for capitalism to work
These two models of business emerged as mass production did, allowing people to obtain a variety of standardized goods either in cities or in the country. Both emerged around the start of the 20th century.
Catalogue shopping (like Sears and Roebuck)
Department stores (like Macy's and Bloomingdale's)
The name for an economic philosophy that advocates for heavy international trade, low taxes and regulations, and which is generally credited with pushing the US towards globalization and a service-focused economy.
Neoliberalism
The people who created Cryptocurrency in the 1990s and early 2000s had two sets of idealistic goals. What were they?
1. Prevent governments/corporations from tracking all our purchases
2. Create a libertarian utopia where no government controlled the money supply
The business model used by McDonalds and other chain restaurants and stores that allows people to have the same service or retail experience anywhere in the country.
Franchising
Matthew Desmond tells a story about an economic crisis resulting from speculative loans and slavery in the late 1830s. What exactly was going on?
People were using their slaves as collateral to get loans to buy either more slaves or more land and banks were turning this debt into bonds that they sold to just about everyone - when the price of cotton dropped, these bonds became worthless and there was an economic collapse.
Robert Putnam's "Bowling Alone" thesis argued that a variety of factors in the mid-to-late 20th century, including a type of consumption focused more on personal amusement but also the movement of women into the work force, was costing Americans this thing, which he defined as the features of social organization like networks, norms, and trust that allow groups to coordinate and cooperate.
Social Capital
What is the name for the kind of business that uses leveraged buyouts to seize control of a company, ratchets up the company's efficiency while destroying its effectiveness, then sells it at a profit while it disintegrates?
"Private Equity", sometimes called "vulture capitalism"
Cryptocurrency was intended to be a new kind of money, but most would argue that it isn't. Why not?
Nobody uses it to buy things - it's a speculative investment.
Strategy used by all kinds of corporations that takes advantage of the decreasing marginal costs of producing lots and lots of something, allowing big businesses to run more efficiently than little ones.
Economies of Scale
Matthew Desmond argued that slavery helped to make American Capitalism successful in three ways. Name all of them.
1) Enslaved people were a capitol asset worth $13 Trillion
2) The Cotton Industry was America's largest export, accounting for 5% of total GDP
3) Management systems used during slavery are still used now
Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death" thesis argues that the modern consumer age has turned ideas, identities, and stories into commodities, training people to focus on what is attention-getting rather than on critical thinking or rationality. What television show did Postman go after despite its beloved status among many parents?
Sesame Street
According to the podcast on Capitalism we listened to, financialization was in some ways a response to market forces but in large part was a deliberate political act. Name an organization the podcast suggested was part of this shift to a financial economy.
The Koch Brothers, the Heritage Foundation, ALEC, Americans for Prosperity, The Tea Party Movement, The Mercatus Center, The Mont Pelerin Society
Name one person convicted of crime in the Crypto world but pardoned by the President.
Wal-Mart is the biggest employer in the country other than the Federal Government. Name one business innovation that allowed Wal-Mart to be so successful.
Control of its own shipping
Control of prices through "monopsony power"
Strong anti-Union stance and "welfare capitalism" approach to employees.
Solomon Northup had the terrible experience of being kidnapped and forced into slavery even though he was a free man in 1841. What is the name of the book written about him (also a movie)?
12 Years a Slave
In Gary Cross' "All-Consuming Century", Cross argues that consumerism is the dominant ideology in American life. Why does he think that this value ended up being the one thing that nearly all Americans decided to agree on?
Because it papers over class divisions, gives people a clear sense of purpose, and allows them to feel free, whereas all ideologies of "constraint" put make Americans feel less free and put them into conflict with one another.
What is the name of the character from the movie "Wall Street" who said "Greed is good" and got turned into a hero by the emerging finance-bro class?
Gordon Gecko
The practice of Pig Butchering, which is a scandal in itself but which also turned out to involve thousands of people enslaved and tortured in Cambodia, is directly related to crypto technology. How?
1. The investments recommended by Pig Butchers usually involve crypto and/or giving someone access to a wallet key.
2. The criminals use Tether to launder their money
How much money did Star Wars action figures make in the early 1980s?
$2 Billion