15 September 2009

Preface

This article is excerpted from the book Outline of the U.S. Economy, published by the Bureau of International Information Programs. View the entire book (PDF, 3.26 MB).

“The panic itself was felt in every part of the globe,” the Wall Street Journal reported. “It was as if a volcano had burst forth in New York, causing a tidal wave that swept with disastrous power over every nation on the globe.” One of the after-effects: “an accumulation of idle money in the banking centres.” The date of this item? January 17, 1908.

Given the sobering news that of late has arrived with distressing frequency, preparing this edition of Outline of the U.S. Economy has been a real challenge. We have tried to approach the task with a sense of historical consciousness. In addition to the 1908 events depicted above, the United States has endured a Great Depression (began 1929), a Long Depression (began 1873), a Panic of 1837 — “an American financial crisis, built on a speculative real estate market,” says Wikipedia — and assorted other recessions, panics, bubbles, and contractions, and emerged from each with its economic vigor restored and its republican institutions vibrant.

We hope that our readers will find this new entry in our Outline series frank, informative, and above all useful. We offer it in the spirit of optimism embedded deeply in American life.

—The Editors