Assignment #7
1970s Money & the Economy

Your answers should be typed and single-spaced. Be sure to put the assignment number and name at the top of your paper to avoid any recording problems.

1. It's time to revisit that movie classic, The Wizard of Oz. For this question you are to describe the primary players in the real story - the story about monetary policy in the 1890s that the Wizard is really about. More specifically, you need to create a table in which you identify the key characters (Dorothy, Oz, Emerald City, yellow brick road, the witches...) and link them to people and places in the US in 1890.

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2. Money makes the world go round, and in 2009-2009 we saw what could happen when it stops going round. You may have not paid much attention to it, but we had a near miss when our financial system nearly collapsed, so it’s time to brush up a little on the system. One place to do it would be Ferguson’s very interesting book The Ascent of Money, and here you have a chance to read one of the chapters from that book, “Of human bondage.” (Sakai Online Readings) Where did he get the title for that chapter, and what are the high – or low – points in the evolution of the modern market for bonds? Where did the Rothschild’s fit into the story, and do you see any parallels between the history of war and debt and the current financial situation we find ourselves in as we fight our wars in the Middle East?