Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #LessonsFromHistory

Most recents (23)

1/8 Witness the intriguing parallel between USDC insolvency concerns & Marriner Eccles's strategy during the Great Depression. Both emphasize trust in financial systems. #stablecoin #financialhistory
USDC issuers, led by Circle, hit pause on withdrawals to gather capital in response to insolvency concerns. They took a page from history to handle the crisis. #cryptocurrency #crisismanagement
Historical context: Marriner Eccles, a prominent banker during the Great Depression, used a clever strategy to control teller cash payouts, restoring confidence in the banking system. #GreatDepression #banking
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The latest Incrementum Chart book; "The dawning of a golden decade" is, as per usual, full of insightful illustrations...Here are a few that stood out to me...
#GlobalTrends #Macro #Stagflation #Inflation #LessonsFromHistory #Investing #Gold (1/3) #US fundamentals...#Commodities ImageImageImageImage
2/3 #Gold price performance in different major currencies...Gold bull/bear markets the long view...Gold vs local stock market performance 2020...#USD index trends, the long view...#Macro #GlobalTrends #Investing ImageImageImageImage
3/3 Purchasing power of main currencies valued in #gold since 1971...Look beyond the last 4 decades for what lies ahead...Historical asset class performance during Stagflationary periods...#GlobalTrends #Macro #Investing #ThePathAhead ImageImageImage
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1/ In today’s #LessonsFromHistory we’re talking about the 1876 Republican National Convention. Like today, racial tensions were running high. Though the Civil War was over, areas of the former Confederacy were still under military occupation eleven years later…
2/ Rutherford B. Hayes was the Republican nominee for president. In an effort to rebuild the Republican Party in the South, Hayes supported removing troops and creating “wise, honest, and peaceful local self-government.” Image
3/ Frederick Douglass, who had escaped slavery as a young man and was the nation’s most prominent abolitionist, was slated to speak at the convention. Despite supporting the party of Reconstruction, Douglass was regularly critical of the Republican Party as well. Image
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1/ We’re taking a moment during this convention week to recall one of the stranger characters from American political history: Pigasus the Immortal, the pig who would be president. #LessonsFromHistory Image
2/ At the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, amid protests against the Vietnam War and violent clashes with police, members of the Youth International Party, known as Yippies (Abbie Hoffman was a founder), brought a pig to a demonstration and announced its candidacy.
3/ When another YIP founder, Jerry Rubin, attempted to give an acceptance speech on behalf of the porcine politician, the police confiscated Pigasus and arrested his handlers, charging them with disorderly conduct. Image
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Hard to imagine today but, 75 years ago, when the first atom bomb was dropped, presidents did not exert total control over the decisions to use nuclear weapons. #LessonsFromHistory explained in this thread ⬇️
.@wellerstein is featured in this video from Retro Report on how the nuclear threat has re-emerged as countries around the world expand their arsenals.
On the 75th anniversary, we looked at how Japan has preserved the stories of the survivors of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki nuclear attacks for future generations.
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1/ Today President Trump suggested that the November election should be postponed because he thinks, despite a lack of evidence, that mail-in voting would lead to a fraudulent election. #voting #VBM

The US has a long history of voting by mail. #LessonsFromHistory. Image
2/ During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln and his fellow Republicans wanted Union soldiers to be able to vote in the 1864 election from the battleground. “I would rather be defeated with the soldier vote behind me than to be elected without it.” Lincoln said. Image
3/ Democrats weren’t happy. They thought letting soldiers vote by mail was a scheme to help the Republicans win. In the end, 3/4 of soldiers who voted cast their ballot for Lincoln, although there's evidence that many were pressured to choose him. opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/07/how…
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1/6 Kanye West’s quixotic presidential run as the candidate of the Birthday Party puts him in a long tradition of colorful - and sometimes viable - 3rd party candidates in American politics. #LessonsFromHistory. Image
2/6 Some appeal to voters on single issues. In 1968 George Wallace had a segregationist platform, and won 13% of the vote. Billionaire Ross Perot ran twice in the 90s, focused on the ballooning deficit, and took part in presidential debates. Image
3/6 It's difficult for so-called “fringe parties” to get on state ballots but they are a fixture in American politics. The Prohibition Party has run anti-alcohol candidates since 1872, including one this year with the slogan “Let’s Make 2020 Wonderful.” Image
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1/10 Former military leaders incl. Gen. Jim Mattis say Trump’s threat to send active duty troops into states he calls “weak” in dealing with protesters would erode “a trusted bond” with civilian society. History shows the move is almost always controversial. #LessonsFromHistory Image
2/10 Under the 1807 Insurrection Act, a president's power to “suppress rebellion” using active duty troops - or to federalize a state's National Guard - is “open-ended,” per @steve_vladek. Rarely, the act has been used to promote, not suppress, civil rights protests.
3/10 In 1957, Pres. Eisenhower took control of the Arkansas National Guard away from Gov. Faubus (below), who used it to stop integration of Little Rock Central High School. He also sent Army paratroopers to escort students and stop protests against them. Image
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1/8 The Trump administration is acting to speed development of a #Covid19 vaccine. Vaccines have spared millions of people from disease. Side effects from vaccines are very rare or very mild. But a few missteps in the past offer #LessonsFromHistory. Image
2/8 1942: A yellow fever vaccine administered by the U.S. Army was contaminated with hepatitis B, causing 100 deaths.
3/8 1947: In New York, a smallpox outbreak killed two people. A vaccine was linked to six deaths.
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1/7 President Trump's Operation Warp Speed panel hopes to make a #Covid19 vaccine available ”by the end of the year if we can, maybe before.” Many scientists are skeptical. The history of vaccines suggests it could take much longer. #LessonsFromHistory Image
2/7 One of the early successes of the modern era of vaccine development was the measles vaccine, approved in 1963. It took nine years to develop. Image
3/7 The mumps vaccine is often considered to hold the record for shortest turnaround: four years. When researcher Maurice Hillleman’s daughter contracted the virus in 1963, he took a throat swab to his lab. A vaccine based on the “Jeryl Lynn” strain was approved in 1967. Image
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1/7 U.S. schoolchildren and teachers are in the midst of a massive experiment in education via the internet. There are parallels to 1937, when a polio outbreak closed Chicago schools and teachers turned to technology: radio. #LessonsFromHistory Image
2/7 Classes were broadcast by teachers on at least six stations: 15-minute lessons in four subjects for grades 3 through 8. In lieu of textbooks, lesson plans and assignments were published in newspapers. Image
3/7 In 1937, there was a technology divide for students without a radio at home. In 2020, lack of computers and high-speed internet has educators worried many students are falling behind. LA schools report many students have simply dropped off the radar.

latimes.com/california/sto…
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1/5 At least 25 people in WA State got sick after mingling with an infected person at #coronavirus parties. It’s not the first time Americans have experimented with self-infection to try to attain “natural immunity.” There are #LessonsFromHistory. Image
2/5 In 2009, “swine flu parties” were in vogue, and CDC issued a warning: “While the disease...has been mild for many people, it has been severe, even fatal for others. There is no way to predict with certainty.” Image
3/5 Before a vaccine came along in 1995, there were “chickenpox parties.” But later, there were news reports of anti-vaccination parents allowing kids to share sippy cups, whistles and lollipops to expose their children to the virus. Image
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1/7 @USSenate is reconvening today. The House could soon follow. With millions working remotely, schools holding classes online and state legislatures in virtual meetings, why does Congress risk meeting in person? There are #LessonsFromHistory Image
2/7 For 200+ years, Congressional lawmakers have depended on face-to-face deliberation, deal-making and arm twisting. Changing that tradition has always been a hard sell. After the 9/11 attacks, an “e-Congress” proposal was put forward but never got off the ground. Image
3/7 “Even the physical destruction of the Capitol, as horrible as that would be, would not be justification for remote voting because… the members who make up the Congress could still meet in one location," said a congressman at the time.
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Here's an update on an earlier thread:

1/7 Dr. Rick Bright, who was formerly in charge of the agency overseeing development of a coronavirus vaccine (@BARDA), claims he was fired for resisting President Trump’s push to widen the use of the unproven drug #hydroxychloroquine.
2/7 In a statement Dr. Bright said: “Rushing blindly towards unproven drugs can be disastrous and result in countless more deaths. Science, in service to the health and safety of the American people, must always trump politics.”

There are #LessonsFromHistory
3/7 With limited evidence that it works and concern over side effects, Trump has touted #hydroxychloroquine, made by Novartis and others, to treat #COVID19. In authorizing use of the antimalarial, @US_FDA bypassed its approval process set up in the ’60s, after a medical tragedy.
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1/5 #COVID19 has introduced many people to an evocative new term, “super spreader”: a person who spreads infectious disease to an unusually large number of others. Super spreaders have been a factor in numerous epidemics and outbreaks in modern history. #LessonsFromHistory Image
2/5 One of the most notorious cases was Mary Mallon. Mallon worked as a cook in New York in the early 1900s, and for much of her life was an asymptomatic carrier of the typhoid bacteria. “Typhoid Mary” infected over 50 people, and was sent to live in isolation for over 25 years. Image
3/5 During the SARS epidemic of 2003, roughly half of the 8,000+ cases recorded were traced back to a single individual, who spent one night at a Hong Kong hotel. He infected over a dozen hotel guests, who in turn spread the disease to Canada, Singapore, and Vietnam. Image
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It's time for another #LessonsFromHistory twitter thread!

1/5 Could #Covid19 change the ancient way we greet one another? Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, said Americans should not shake hands “ever again.”
2/5 The handshake was mentioned in the Iliad and Odyssey, written down around the 8th century BC, and is probably older. Clasping hands may have begun as a peace gesture, proof that the greeters weren’t holding weapons.
3/5 Customs are changing. People are avoiding handshakes, cheek kisses and high-fives in an effort to reduce the risk of #Covid-19 infection. Even Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany was snubbed last month by her interior minister.
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1/6 Delivery, grocery store and other gig workers w/little choice but to work during the #COVID19pandemic are protesting the lack of safety measures and benefits, including paid sick leave. During the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, sick days were also making headlines. #LessonsFromHistory Image
2/6 In 2009, as the swine flu spread into a global pandemic, some public health experts warned that workers without paid sick days would go into work because they couldn’t afford to jeopardize their work or lose a day's pay, and spread the disease to others.
3/6 A study from the peak months of the pandemic in the US concluded that 7 million people might have contracted the disease because sick colleagues went to work instead of staying home. Image
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Another #LessonsFromHistory thread!

1/7 People from fashion designers to parents stuck at home are gathering fabric scraps and craft supplies to sew protective masks. Grassroots volunteers have stepped in before in times of crisis.
2/7 During both World Wars, volunteers knitted wool socks, hats and sweaters for soldiers. The American Red Cross distributed materials with the slogan “Knit Your Bit.
3/7 To show support, President Woodrow Wilson kept a flock of sheep on the White House lawn; the fleece was auctioned off and proceeds went to the American Red Cross war relief fund.
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1/6 .@TheJusticeDept is investigating stock selloffs by GOP Sen. Richard Burr just before the market took a nose dive in Feb due to #coronavirus. Access to inside information that could benefit lawmakers financially also caused an uproar after the 2008 financial meltdown. Image
2/6 At that time Congressional lawmakers were exempt from insider trading laws. In a @60Minutes report, one expert said: “They were getting out of the market before the rest of America really knew what was going on.”
3/6 That led to the Stock Act, a bill sponsored by then-Sen. Joseph Lieberman that made it illegal for members of Congress to profit from inside information. #LessonsFromHistory Image
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A #LessonsFromHistory thread!

1/ The #Olympics are postponed, but athletes around the world have trained for 4 years to perform at their peak this July. In 10 tweets, a history of times Olympic athletes couldn’t compete: Image
2/ Summer 1916: The Berlin Games are canceled due to WW1. (The next time Berlin is picked as Olympic host is 1936, the Games overseen by Adolf Hitler just before the outbreak of WW2.)
3/ Summer and Winter, 1940-1944: Four Games are canceled because of WW2. The 1940 Games, set for Japan, would have been the first time a country outside Europe and the US was the host.
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Check out our latest Retro Report #LessonsFromHistory twitter thread.

1/ @Kinsa says data it is collecting from its internet-connected thermometers may be able to map outbreaks of #COVID19. Plotting disease outbreaks on a map has a long #history, and started with cholera.
2/ Today, investigators use maps to pinpoint the origin of diseases, track animal migration, and even to solve crimes. The idea goes back to a map drawn in London in 1854 by a doctor named John Snow.
3/ By plotting cholera deaths on a map, Dr. Snow noticed that many were concentrated around a city well on Broad Street.
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Some segments from the interesting 'Men & Mysteries of Wall Street' by the eloquent J.K. Medbery published in 1870. It holds many good insights as well as being a reminder of how little things changes in the affairs of mankind, especially in the financial sphere. #SundayReads
Boom time - riding the bull in mindless bliss to a permanently higher plateau...until the crash when liquidity showed itself - as it always does in such scenarios - to be a coward who was no where to be found when needed the most..#LessonsFromHistory #Investing
The confidence game turns into the CONfidence game & the unravelling starts again with 'bulls shivering & the bears jubilant' - Congress disposed to fan the speculative flame - The irresistible allure of stock speculation - Mania is when the 'hen-brokers' come out..#Investing
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1️⃣ Imagine a law that allows a government to "make any provision that could be made by an Act of Parliament (including modifying this Act)"
2️⃣ I'm not sure if people realise just how dangerous that power is. They can do literally anything with it. It needs to be voted down.
3️⃣ There's a good reason why this is referred to as Henry VIII power.
Read 8 tweets

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