You’ll find student discussion, organized by each week, about course readings for HIST 218: The United States since 1945
The Great Recession
In Ages of American Capitalism, Jonathan Levy explains how the Great Recession of 2007 challenged many long-standing beliefs about capitalism in the U.S., especially the idea that free markets are the best and fairest way to run the economy. Before the crash, many people believed that the government should stay out of the economy as…
Burning Sage
The environmental movement was raging in the 70s and momentum was chugging along with the creation of the EPA and increased environmental protections being passed in the congressional halls. The environmental movement was a non-partisan issue with both Republicans and Democrats supporting the first Earth Day in 1970. Enter the New Right, who painted environmental…
Day Off in Kyoto, Got Bored at the Temple
Society has progressed so far in the last few hundred years; we have invented electricity, airplanes, and yet the one thing we have not been able to figure out is stubbornness. That leads us to the continued scientific reality that climate change is real and there is quite a bit of consensus surrounding this reality.…
Economic Rapture
The great economic rapture, as I am calling it, did not start with the Great Recession but this moment in time marked a change from the conservative consensus to a government interventionist model. Obama was the facilitator in this change not only with policy but also with rhetoric. For example, during his campaign Obama highlighted…
The Obama Administration’s Response to the Great Recession
Although there perhaps was a departure from the conservative consensus in terms of the opinions of the public, the Obama administration did not represent a departure from the consensus. This is mainly because the Obama administration, instead of developing a new way for the American economy to work, mainly put forth changes to reinstate the…
The Power of Financial Institution During The 2008 Recession
The response from the Obama administration to the 2008 financial crisis used indirect government intervention to prevent market forces from putting the large banks and financial titans out of business. The government decided to bail out the hegemons of the financial world, such as Wall Street and big banks, choosing to retain the status quo.…
Continuity in Crisis
In many ways, the Obama administration’s response to the Great Recession of 2007 and 2008 was a continuation of, rather than a break from, the conservative consensus that had dominated U.S. economic policy since the 1980s. The crisis did challenge the faith in deregulated markets, and prompted questioning of the idea that markets naturally allocate…
How did the technology of the Great Recession change in 2007-08?
I think the Great Recession of 2007-08 shook many of the central tenants of the conservative consensus =-namely, a faith in markets as the most fair allocator or resources and pursuing deregulation to achieves economic growth nin way that we believe what wwas best for that time and how we can use for the greater…
New Horror Site: Zillow in 2008
Historian Jonathan Levy writes, “what most distinguishes the Age of Chaos is a shift in what has always been capitalism’s core dynamic: the logic of investment, as it works through production, exchange, and consumption” (Levy). After the Volcker Shock (named after the chairman of the Federal Reserve in late 1970s and early ‘80s), the United…
Week 15
During the recession, Obama continued Bush’s policies of bailouts for financial institutions. This goes to the economic principle that stabilizing markets was important for economic recovery. On page 593, Levy says, “Meanwhile, through the TARP, the Treasury Department injected public capital into the largest US banks.” This helped to slow the crisis and promote public…
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