Nic Johnson is a PhD candidate at the University of Chicago, working on a history of American Keynesianism.

March 30, 2023

Analysis

The Imperial Fed

Colonial currencies and the pan-American origins of the dollar system

The Federal Reserve is commonly depicted as an institution set up to fulfill domestic functions, only later taking on its significant international and geopolitical dimensions. This view sees the Fed’s origins in various domestic concerns, such as bankers’ desire to…

April 28, 2021

Analysis

Reconstruction Finance

Popular politics and reconstructing the Reconstruction Finance Corporation.

Like the world system as a whole, segregated cities in the United States have their own finance driven core-periphery dynamics.