Economic History
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History of VA Home Loan Program
On October 26, 2012 the 20 Millionth VA Home Loan was purchased by the spouse of an Iraq War Veteran who passed away in 2010. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) home loan program first got its start as part of the GI Bill of Rights in June of 1944. The GI Bill, officially named the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, was established to provide benefits for those returning home after serving in World War II. Besides the government backed, low interest home loans, the bill also served to provide veterans with college scholarships. The legislation was of such immense influence it is credited with helping to establish the American middle class. Source: VA Website ,…
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Stock Market Crash of 1987
I was in my 20s and working for a small business owner on Black Monday, October 19, 1987. I did not own stocks. I was doing good just to get by on my modest income; this was before finishing college and gaining valuable work experience. My boss, on the other hand, was in a terrible mood that financially dark, historic day. It was blatently apparent that something had gone seriously awry to everyone who came across his path. He had heard the news. The stock market had spiraled downward dropping 508 points, or 22 percent. I don’t know how much he had invested, but from his fowl disposition it was substantial and he, of course, was not alone in this predicament. A predicament that had…
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Ayn Rand’s Objectivism
by Research History In 1959, when Ayn Rand was relatively unknown, Mike Wallace conducted her first interview. This broadcast stirred up quite a controversy. The Russian-American philosopher and novelist called her philosophy Objectivism. Her beliefs seemed strange and extreme from an American’s point of view, but when you consider her experience as a Russian at the time of the Russian Revolution of 1917 it begins to make sense. When Rand was twelve, she and her family had their lives disrupted by the Bolshevik party under Vladimir Lenin. This resulted in the eventual confiscation of her father’s pharmacy and they were forced to flee to Crimea. Personal experience and cultural context are the staples…
