They began publishing monthly magazines in Over the next years, the company expanded, purchasing other publishers and becoming one of what is known today as one of the Big Five publishers in New York City. It began when John and Henry Pearce created an adaptation of the cotton gin and began manufacturing machinery in Cincinnati. Brooks Brothers is the oldest clothing retailer in America, dating all the way back to — the same year Congress decided the United States flag should have 13 red and white stripes and 20 stars, according to the company.
The very first Brooks Brothers store, formerly known as D. In , the company introduced its first ready-made suits, and in , Brooks Brothers released their original button-down polo shirt. Now, the company has more than retail and factory stores in the United States as well as more than locations internationally, according to the website.
First called "R. Rowland Hussey Macy started with four dry goods stores in and opened the original Macy's store in downtown Haverhill, MA. The first New York store opened in on Sixth Street and moved to its current 34 th and Broadway location known all over the world in Known for its impressive window display and publicity activities to draw shoppers, Macy's went nationwide in the s, growing quickly.
Despite recent earnings problems, Macy's is working hard to stay in business and identify with consumers and upcoming generations of shoppers. When Best died in , his daughter's husband Frederick Pabst took over and changed the name.
For more than hundred years, Pabst Blue Ribbon has been the brewery's most famous beer. By the way, the "blue ribbon" doesn't refer to awards, but instead to the blue ribbon that was tied around the bottle's neck to separate it from its competitors. Additional reporting by Adam C. Some source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.
Founded When? America's Oldest Companies. Marci Martin. Caswell-Massey This perfume and soap company was started by Dr. The Hartford Courant The Connecticut-based newspaper was established in by printer Thomas Green as the Connecticut Courant and is known for being America's oldest newspaper in continuous publication, according to its website.
Ames The tool company, which today makes everything from garden hoses and reels to professional hand tools, was started by a blacksmith, Captain John Ames, in Massachusetts in Dixon Ticonderoga If you've ever had to fill out an exam with a No. Jim Beam Bourbon was born in the s when corn farmers of the Kentucky region of Virginia distilled their excess crop into a sweeter whiskey, according to Jim Beam's website.
Crane and Co. DuPont When you think DuPont, you probably think of an innovative, modern company. Colgate Colgate wasn't always a toothpaste company. Pfaltzgraff You can still buy Pfaltzgraff dinnerware in department stores today, but its roots go back to the early s, when the Pfaltzgraff family immigrated to the United States and set up a small potter's wheel and kiln on their modest acre homestead in York County, Pennsylvania.
Louisville Stoneware Louisville Stoneware is one of the oldest stoneware manufacturers in the country. Remington Who would have thought that America's oldest firearm maker first became known for its commercial typewriter? HarperCollins First known as J. Brooks Brothers Brooks Brothers is the oldest clothing retailer in America, dating all the way back to — the same year Congress decided the United States flag should have 13 red and white stripes and 20 stars, according to the company.
Macy's First called "R. Image Credit:. Business News Daily Contributing Writer. Still the debt shrank in significance as the US economy grew. Debt-to-GDP began another upswing in the early s, when the US fell into a particularly nasty recession, set off by the Federal Reserve under Paul Volcker, who raised interest rates to record heights in order to defeat inflation.
Government receipts flattened thanks in part to the large, permanent tax cuts that served as one of the top accomplishments of President Ronald Reagan's first term. Spending jumped on both defense and social programs. Deficits exploded, breaking with the US tradition of only running large deficits during wartime.
After that, a surge of economic growth, and increased revenues--thanks in part to the tax increases that cost the first President George Bush re-election and tax increases pushed through by the Clinton administration --helped bend the trajectory of the debt load back into line. At that point, things looked so good on the debt front, that some were projecting the US would be within striking distance of eliminating the entire debt within a decade.
It didn't work out that way. A recession, combined with tax cuts in and championed by President George W. Bush, severely crimped revenue.
At the same time, spending surged both on military outlays after Sept. As a result. US borrowing shot higher to finance the Bush Administration's efforts to stabilize the banking system as the economy teetered on the brink in The great recession was the perfect storm to blow debt-to-GDP ratios skyward.
GDP tumbled. That means that even without a spending increase, debt-to-GDP would have jumped sharply. Moreover, government revenues shrank to their lowest level since -- as a percentage of GDP -- because business activity declined; that meant that debt levels would have to rise, even without spending increases.
And there were indeed spending increases. That number declined somewhat, to The U. Those are largely obligations to the trust funds that are used to pay for programs such as Social Security. These aren't counted in debt-to-GDP charts published here, and are often excluded from such calculations. So what does that mean? Here's where we get into some arguments. Some economists say that the empirical record suggests that a debt-to-GDP ratio this high is bad for long-term economic growth because the borrowing costs become a drag on other government spending.
Manufacturing workers averaged 55 hours at work per week, 10 percent more than self-reported averages today. And the jobs were more dangerous: With a fatality rate of 61 deaths per , workers, the workplace was about 30 times more dangerous than it is today.
For women: Women were much less likely to work, and in , many were finding employment at elementary and high schools. As families moved off farms into cities and suburbs, it became harder for some old people to find work in factories, which ran on limber sinews and sweat. In the 40 years before , the share of men over 65 working on farms dropped 39 percent. America ate lard and cold cereal and paid a lot of money for it. Food was not only less varied in , but also considerably more expensive.
The early 20th century was a golden age of cold-cereal products—Corn Flakes, Quaker Puffed Rice and Puffed Wheat, and Shredded Wheat all came on the market between and —but on the farm, people enjoyed a heartier meal of eggs and pancakes. Lunch at the office provided a logistical challenge, as in , there existed no such thing as a plastic bag to keep a sandwich fresh. Instead, contemporary cookbooks called for keeping sandwiches moist by "wrapping [them] in a dry towel, covered with a towel wrung out of hot water.
The average American ate roughly equivalent amounts of lard and chicken— One century later, the ratio has, blessedly, widened. Americans eat 57 pounds of chicken, compared to just 1. American home life was extremely crowded.
America had one-third of its current population in , and it was considerably more spread out. Half of all families lived in rural areas, or in towns with populations below 2, But you wouldn't notice the relative sparseness if you just just stayed home.
The average household was crowded, with more than four people, a figure which has fallen with each passing decade, and now resides just above 2. Loneliness was a financial impossibility, back then, as few could afford to live alone. Practically no couples got divorced, and widows moved in with their adult children. Owning was a rarity. In , there were about four times as many renters as homeowners, whereas today, the homeownership rate is above 60 percent.
Infants were both more abundant and more precarious. Women had more children—three, on average—to help on the farm in the old agrarian economy. But the more disquieting reason women had so many children was that children were likely to die: Ten percent of infants died in their first year, compared with one in every births in the U.
For this happy and dramatic improvement, mothers and fathers can thank the professionalization of baby-delivery.
0コメント