"This paper discusses parallels between our current recession and the Great Depression for the intelligent general public. It stresses the role of economic models and ideas in public policy and argues that gold-standard mentality still holds sway today. The parallels are greatest in the...

This paper argues that there was enough buying and selling (emptio venditio) in the early Roman Empire to show that there were markets, and there were enough markets at the time that there was a market economy. I use three examples to make these points, one from my research, one from the...

Slavery and the Civil War -- Reconstruction -- The Gilded Age and Jim Crow laws -- The Great Migration, Depression and world wars -- Postwar prosperity and the civil rights movement -- A new Gilded Age and mass incarceration -- Racism rises and America declines.

In November 2020, The New York Times asked fifteen on its columnists to 'explain what the past four years have cost America.' Not one of the columnists focused on President Trump's racism. This book seeks to redress this imbalance and bring Black Americans' role in our economy to the forefront....