Higgs (1971) finds evidence to suggest that railroads did take advantage of farmers
before 1896.
The Desert Land Act (1877) and the Cary Act (1894) liberalized the terms for
preemption that had been set originally in the 1862 Homestead Act.
The evidence shows that both the U.S. steel and auto industries seem to have lost their
vigor for growth and competitive edges in the global marketplace.
The power of the contract and the ability to enforce contracts in the U.S. are, in part,
responsible for the overall success of the U.S. economy.
Fears that the Munn v Illinois (1877) doctrine would result in excessive government
control over businesses were not realized, for it actually had the effect of retarding
government regulation.
The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 is thought to have contributed to the severity of
the 1930s depression because of the rise in tariff rates and the consequential drop in
private consumption, savings and investment.
There has been a massive relocation of heavy industry from the U.S. Northeast and
upper Midwest to the “Sun Belt.”
The majority of people living in colonial America in 1790 were of African origins.
The Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge (1837) decision established that a state
could incorporate competing franchises, effectively overturning the old idea that a
corporate charter implied a grant of monopoly.
Output expanded and was distributed toward wartime uses and away from private uses
only during World War I (1914″18), not World War II (1941″45). The high
unemployment of the 1940s made this possible.
Efforts to balance the federal government’s budget by raising taxes provided a buffer to
the economic downturn of the Great Depression.
Fogel’s (1964) work on railroads after the Civil War shows that they did not dominate
the markets for steel, coal or wood.
The unemployment rate of today is significantly lower than that rate one hundred years
ago.
World trade and tariffs have been regulated by the International Trade Organization
(ITO), General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the World Trade
Organization (WTO). Today, only the ITO still exists to address international trade
issues and monitor the implementation of any trade agreements negotiated in the
Uruguay Round of world trade talks.
The decline of the greenback against gold made imports more expensive.
Social Security taxes were and are progressive, meaning that the highest proportion is
taxed from the highest incomes.
According to the quantity theory of money, a shortage of money should result in
deflation (falling prices) or negative growth (decreasing quantities of output).
After the inflation of the Johnson-Nixon-Ford years (1963″1976), the Carter
Administration, while still inflationary, managed to slow down the rate of advancing
prices.
By fixing the mint price of gold among commercial nations under the Gold Standard,
the exchange rate risk falls significantly, thus encouraging trade.
Incorporated firms first began appearing in the 1850s.
Merchant banks and land mortgage companies were the result of the expansions in the
transportation and industrial systems.
The financial chaos of the antebellum period clearly impeded economic growth and
development in the long run.
Buying securities on the margin requires people interested in buying stocks to pay only
a percentage (a margin) of the actual purchase price. The rest is borrowed from
someone else, usually an investor’s broker.
The decline in wholesale and consumer prices in 1929″30 was not as large as had been
the decline in 1920″21.
Labor productivity is measured by dividing Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by
population.
On the eve of the American Revolution, the majority of colonists were naturally born in
the colonies rather than immigrants from elsewhere.
In the eighteenth century, the rise of manufacturing in New England helped the region
attract more settlers than the other regions of the English colonies.
Tariffs benefit the consumers of the import-competing goods.
The cost of output is income to the land, labor, capital and entrepreneurial talent used to
produce it.
Mass production was made possible by mass consumption, a national market and
international trade.
The demographic trends in population growth and migration after the Civil War differed
significantly from those established before the War.
What were the two main sources of population increases during the antebellum period?
(a) a significant increase in the number of indentured servants and slaves
(b) immigration and a natural increase in population
(c) government policies providing incentive to procreate and advanced pre-natal care
(d) longer life expectancies and high infant mortality rates
From the mid-1960s to the present, what would a graph of U.S. productivity rates
against time reveal?
(a) A stable upward trend in the amount of output per paid hour
(b) An unstable but upward trend
(c) A U-shape
(d) A downward trend
From the late 1970s to the late 1980s, Hall (1994) finds that leverage buyouts most
commonly take place among firms
(a) in the volatile tech industry.
(b) facing steep global competition.
(c) that are unstable.
(d) like those mentioned in all of the above.
What is/are the lesson(s) learned from the stock market crash of 1929?
(a) Statements and opinions of federal officials can and do impact consumer and
business optimism and pessimism regarding stocks and other financial markets, leading
to volatile buying and selling behaviors.
(b) Portfolio diversification is important.
(c) One segment of the aggregate market economy can experience events that impact
the economy as a whole.
(d) Reflection, analysis and evaluation are often required to understand why an event
occurred and what can be done to prevent it from happening in the future.
Historians generally agree that the railroads
(a) were absolutely essential for industrial growth in the 19th century.
(b) were an indispensable “leading sector.”
(c) were our first “giant” enterprises.
(d) provided a ‘social saving” of 90% or more.
The evidence shows that in 1860″1910
(a) population and annual hours worked grew more rapidly than did the employed labor
force.
(b) population grew more rapidly than the labor force, but annual hours worked grew
less rapidly.
(c) population grew less rapidly than did the employed labor force, and the work day
shortened.
(d) population, productivity and the work day grew less rapidly than did the employed
labor force.
By 1774, the Southern colonies’
(a) share of total colonial wealth was the lowest.
(b) wealth per capita was the highest.
(c) land contributed very little to total wealth.
(d) depended heavily on immigrant labor.
Unemployment in the post-World War II era (1945″50)
(a) was reduced only because of the post-war decline in the size of the civilian labor
force.
(b) rose above wartime levels, but remained far below the levels of the 1930s.
(c) rose in response to the decline in civilian consumption levels.
(d) remained at the low levels achieved in World War II (1941″45).
Economists believe the “full employment” level of unemployment is
(a) 0 percent
(b) 2 percent
(c) 5 percent
(d) 10 percent
The Federal Constitution, like the laws under English rule, permitted the U.S.
government to
(a) impose taxes to pay for government services and national defense.
(b) regulate commerce with other countries.
(c) create money and regulate its value.
(d) do all of the above.
Most researchers agree that the New Deal positively impacted
(a) employment and overall production.
(b) wages, working conditions and working hours.
(c) electricity production and use of it as power.
(d) all of the above.
In answer to the question, “Could they see the Great Depression coming?”, Hughes and
Cain (2011) respond:
(a) NoMany people firmly believed that markets would self-correct and eventually
recover with no government intervention
(b) Nomany people seemed to believe that the prosperity of the 1920s would
continue indefinitely because they believed that the economy was built to sustain high
and stable rates of growth with minimal cyclical fluctuation when markets were
permitted to clear themselves without government interference.
(c) Yesin the late 1920s, a majority of economists reported and publicized that the
economy was becoming dangerously unbalanced and that a serious downturn was near.
(d) Yes and noby the late 1920s, the economics profession was about equally split on
the possibility of a serious downturn in the near future.
Western expansion put whites on a collision course with the indigenous people of North
America. The major policy of the U.S. government was to
(a) basically ignore them as a separate group and allow them to be naturally assimilated
into American life over time.
(b) confine them to reservations where they could practice their tribal customs, they
could be completely separate from white society with no interference in their affairs,
and they could continue to develop and grow their customs and norms based on
traditional ways.
(c) enslave them as a source of labor for the plantation system.
(d) “civilize” them by replacing tribal social structures and values with those more
appropriate to white society, such as individual ownership of property,competitive
striving for material gain, farming activities for Native American men and
housekeeping for Native American women and the replacement of native languages
with English among children.
The idea of interchangeable parts, which was an important aspect of the American
System of Manufacturing, is attributed by Hughes and Cain (2011) to
(a) Henry Ford, who used it in the production of automobiles.
(b) Adam Smith, who suggested it in his book The Wealth of Nations.
(c) Thomas Jefferson, who used it in his “nailery” on his plantation.
(d) Eli Whitney, who used it in the production of guns.
The number of highly skilled and knowledge workers entering the workforce increases
when
(a) firms substitute capital for high priced labor.
(b) the market demands labor with advanced degrees.
(c) the government cuts educational funding.
(d) All of the above
The increase in tax on state bank notes from 2 to 10 percent provided state banks
incentive to
(a) attract more demand deposits and increase the use of checks.
(b) increase the amount of state notes and use them to extend bank credit.
(c) increase the minting of coins and use them for exchange and lending purposes.
(d) all of the above.
What does Simon Kuznet’s (1958) study on the U.S. economy show?
(a) Short swings in the U.S. business cycles but steady, stable growth in Real Gross
Domestic Product
(b) Immigrants to the U.S. were attracted by the secular increases in U.S. real
wages and incomes
(c) A decrease, not increase, in net U.S. migration from 1860 to 1910
(d) No movement in capital, only humans, across the Atlantic economy from 1860 to
1910
Chandler (1994) credits IBM’s dominance in the world computer market to
(a) advancements in technology.
(b) investments in research and development.
(c) solid management and sophisticated marketing.
(d) all of the above.
Some economists argue that the increases in aggregate demand for output spurred by
wartime spending, complemented by the strong spending in the private sector, impacted
the U.S. economy by
(a) increasing production and employment.
(b) increasing employment and income.
(c) increasing income, thus fueling additional spending.
(d) contributing to all of the above.
The population theory of Thomas Malthus
(a) would have predicted the changes in per output in this country in the 19th century
and up to 1910.
(b) would lead you to expect a powerful surge in physical output as the immigration
poured in.
(c) would not have predicted the positive trend increase in per capita output and income
in 1860″1910.
(d) does not apply to any of the above.
The Clayton Act of 1914 was labeled “Labor’s Magna Carta.” This act recognized labor
as property and deemed that it could not be treated as an article of commerce.
Which of the following best describes chattel slavery?
(a) It provided protected property rights to the slaves.
(b) It offered property rights to the slave owners.
(c) It involved the establishment of a voluntary contract between slave and slave owner.
(d) It created wealth for the slave and slave owner.
The Federal Reserve System began operating in 1914, finally
(a) giving the U.S. its first 100 percent gold-backed paper money.
(b) creating a privately-owned system for clearing checks on a national scale.
(c) giving the U.S. its first government-owned central bank.
(d) giving the U.S. its first unified currency issue, the Federal Reserve Note.
The farm revolt (Populism) led ultimately to all of the following changes in society
except
(a) Universal public education
(b) Women’s suffrage
(c) Secret ballots
(d) The vote for working men
The decade of the 1920s was characterized by which of the following?
(a) Economic advancements in agriculture
(b) A decrease in the inequality of income and wealth
(c) Consumers dramatically shifted their household demands into purchases of durable
goods on credit
(d) All of the above characterized the decade of the 1920s
Some economic historians argue that the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was
the first case of the “capture” of a federal regulatory commission. What does this mean?
(a) The railroads used the ICC to solve the problems of cartel management.
(b) The users of the railroadspassengers and shippersinfluenced the ICC to keep railroad
rates high and the quality of those services high.
(c) The railroads used the Commission to keep rates high and keep potential new
railroads from entering the business.
(d) Foreign investors high jacked the ICC to protect their railroad investrments.
From Elizabeth I to George III, England strongly influenced the institutional structure
of colonial America. This influence is realized today on which of the following fronts?
(a) Private property rights
(b) The role of international trade and finance in the U.S. economy
(c) Population growth through immigration
(d) All of the above
From 1860 to 1910,
(a) The total population grew faster than the workforce.
(b) National income grew faster than did total population.
(c) The workday increased.
(d) Foreign investment in the U.S. dropped continuously.
The National Recovery Administration (NRA) of 1933″35 attempted to restore market
competition within U.S. domestic and international markets.
Why is the Clayton Act of 1914 considered to have been favorable to the interests of
organized labor?
(a) It restricted the application of the Sherman Antitrust Act and excluded labor unions
from it.
(b) It legalized collective bargaining for the first time.
(c) It declared labor to be an article of commerce.
(d) It forbade the use of injunctions by the courts to stop strikes.
The corporation, as a form of business organization, fueled the positive trend toward
federal regulation of business activities for all of the following reasons except
(a) Corporations were rapidly becoming more numerous than sole proprietorships and
partnerships.
(b) Corporations made possible or encouraged growth in the number of giant
enterprises.
(c) Corporations were adept at market manipulations, including price-fixing.
(d) Corporations were able to take advantage of economies of scale which made
possible business organizations whose affairs overlapped local or state jurisdictions,
creating the need for federal control across state lines.
The big current-account deficits in the late 1880s and early 1890s were financed
primarily by
(a) Borrowing from other nations, especially England
(b) Interests earned on bonds and dividends paid on other investments
(c) Taxes
(d) Sale of public land
Where was the largest market for the huge increase in U.S. manufacturing output in
1860″1910 located?
(a) In Europe
(b) In Asia
(c) Within the U.S.
(d) In the Third World