How Business Worked

Thanks to Monarch for partnering with me! Start your free trial and get 50% off your first year of total money clarity using my link https://monarchmoney.yt.link/R1KB1VK or code hbw50 for 50% Off Monarch Core tier

------

Sign up for my FREE newsletter! - https://www.compoundeddaily.com/

------

#debt #History #business

Link To Our Other Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/HowMoneyWorks

Written By: Sam

Video Created By:
Svibe Multimedia Studio
Editor: Cardan
Media Gatherer: Andrea Rivas

Footage Courtesy of: Getty Images

Music Provided By: Epidemic Sound

📩 Business Inquiries ➡️ [email protected]

-----

Sources (In order)

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?end=2001&locations=JP-US&start=1960

https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/107th-congress-2001-2002/reports/entire-report.pdf

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1004548380881711360

https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2011/10/20/LifeAfterDebt.pdf

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/heres-why-us-doesnt-pay-035612736.html

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/A091RC1Q027SBEA

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/A091RC1Q027SBEA

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/03/06/upshot/balancing-budget-painful-spending-cuts.html

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1YyCL

https://files.taxfoundation.org/20230125101530/FedData2023_2.png

https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/the-legacy-of-the-2001-and-2003-bush-tax-cuts

https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RL32502.html

https://www.congress.gov/bill/107th-congress/house-bill/1836/text

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-108publ27/pdf/PLAW-108publ27.pdf

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1YyEv

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-115publ97/pdf/PLAW-115publ97.pdf

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-119publ21/pdf/PLAW-119publ21.pdf

https://www.whitehouse.gov/releases/2025/06/myth-vs-fact-the-one-big-beautiful-bill/

https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2000/06/2000b_bpea_fleming.pdf

https://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2001/20010427/default.htm

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1Yz1x

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FDEFX

https://www.macrotrends.net/1320/nasdaq-historical-chart

https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/great-recession-and-its-aftermath

https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/infocus/achievement/chap7.html

------

At the start of the new Millennium, it's hard to express just how truly dominant the American economy was.
Externally, the fall of the Soviet Union and the cold war was a decade old memory, and the new economic challenge from Japan had largely fizzled in the aftermath of the Asian Financial Crisis.
The American economy was more than twice as large as the runner up, which was a lead not seen by any other nation in history outside of the end of the second world war (which was arguably influenced a lot more by international destruction than domestic prosperity)
Internally things were arguably even better. The markets were booming, people were seeing meaningful quality of life increases and this was all achieved while ALSO running the largest fiscal surplus in history.
In 2001 the congressional budget office estimmated that by 2009 the national debt (which was already modest at the time) would be fully paid off, thanks to over 5.6 trillion dollars in surplus revenue coming in over that time…
At the time this seemed almost so guaranteed to happen that the treasury even stopped issuing 30 year bonds, because well… they didn't want to have a debt burden that would be around longer than the country needed it.
The assumed inevitability of America being debt free was such a big deal, that a lot of economists were actually freaking out about what this could mean for the global economy and the nature of money itself…
But of course… that never happened…
In just 10 years America went from assuming that its debt would be gone for good…

Starting or preventing war can be as simple as making a tough decision and pressing a button. That’s a decisions that one mind had to make, one man who stood between us and complete, global annihilation…

He was a simple man who believed in the common good. And it was this guiding instinct that convinced a regular soviet soldier that the computer warning flashing on his screen about an incoming nuclear missile attack was, in fact, a false alarm. If he was wrong, his motherland could be destroyed and a retaliation of missiles would be fired, creating a domino effect of nuclear explosions worldwide.

But if he was right, then he’d save all of humankind. So what was it like in those crucial seconds? What was his thought process and why was he punished for preventing the end of the world?

Well, it’s time to learn How History Works to understand everything that led up to this fateful decision, and how the world almost changed on a dime.

It all went down on the 26th of September 1983 when a 44-year-old lieutenant colonel of the Soviet Air Defense Forces started his shift. His name was Stanislav Petrov and he was sitting at this terminal when the screen showed 5 nuclear missiles leaving the US and heading to Russia, his motherland. Presumably back then the graphics looked like something from an Arcade version of missile command, but for Petrov, it was all too real.

------

#HowHistoryWorks #History #worldwar3

Link To My Other Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/HowMoneyWorks

Video Created By: Arun Singh

Footage Courtesy of: Getty Images

Music Provided By: Epidemic Sound

For sponsorship inquiries, please contact [email protected]