Financial Context

In 1824 a landmark case heard by the SCOTUS settled an early dispute in the US about the power individual states had to regulate commerce. In this month's podcast, Nate and Dan tell the story of how a monopoly in the Hudson River started out as a great idea but quickly became unpopular.

He is considered the father of the nation's financial system. In this month's episode Nate & Dan discuss the first US Treasurer Alexander Hamilton, his policies and why he created a lot of enemies while in office.

It wasn't so much the Great Depression that changed America but United States Government's response to it that help shaped the future. In this month's episode Nate & Dan discuss FDR's policies and just how game-changing they were.

While the effects of the Great Depression are well known, the causes are a lot more confusing. Broad or simple explanations say less about the event and more about the person speaking. In this month's show Nate & Dan attempt to explain what actually happened nearly 100 years ago.

In this month's show Nate & Dan discuss the most infamous swindler in financial history: Bernie Madoff. They also talk about the original con artist, Charles Ponzi.

In part 2 of this episode Nate and Dan discuss how the John Rockefeller's oil juggernaut came under attack not by competitors but by the public and politicians.

The first truly global corporation began to take shape in the 1970's when the Standard Oil trust was formed. It would eventually control close to 90% of American oil refining. In this month's episode of Financial Context, Nate and Dan talk about how John Rockefeller and co. supplied kerosene for a nation before the advent of electricity and the somewhat suspect business practices they used along the way.

Only about a decade after the California Gold rush another speculative boom occurred in the US. This time the epicenter would be in western Pennsylvania as the first oil wells were first successfully drilled for.

After the Great Depression and the Civil War, no event transformed the United States quite like the California Gold Rush. It ushered in a time of economic, geographical and cultural expansion. In this episode we revisit an event that most children learn about in school.

For more than 150 years the "beacon of free markets", the New York Stock Exchange operated as a cartel and fixed prices that its members could charge. Only in 1975 under the pressure from the Department of Justice and the Securities Exchange Commission did the "Big Board" eventually change its fixed commission regime.