The man and the moment -- The politics of capture -- Continuity and collusion -- Missing a rendezvous with reform -- Crony capitalism -- Obama's loyal opposition -- Political malpractice -- Change we can believe in

Introduction -- The legacy of Napoleon: embargo, war, and peace -- Three revolutions: market, transportation, corporation -- Volcano weather -- Alabama fever: "I must go West and plant" -- Bank expansion: "frothy bubbles" -- Bank contraction: "the axe must be applied to the root of the evil" --...

The year 1873 was one of financial crisis. A boom in railway construction had spurred a bull market-but when the boom turned to bust, transatlantic panic quickly became a worldwide economic downturn. In Transatlantic Speculations, Hannah Catherine Davies offers a new lens on the panics of 1873...

"Davies's book examines the financial panics of 1873, considering both the financial speculations born of exuberance that led to these panics and the interpretative speculations born of the crises, and exploring what this in turn reveals about contemporary notions of the world economy and...

Prologue: "The hippopotamus under the rug" -- The most certain man in the world -- Triumph -- The stealth ideologue -- The rise of Rubinomics -- Larry and Joe -- Portrait of a contrarian -- Children of the boom -- The high tide of hubris -- The last guy at the Alamo -- Reaganites redux -- The...