The Great Beer Parade Stimulus of 1932

By 1932, Prohibition had obviously failed. But how could the U.S. legally bring back booze? A constitutional amendment had authorized the ban, and only another one could erase it. Luckily, during the Great Depression, anti-Prohibitionists had an economic argument.

Defiant “drys” mocked “wet” schemes to refloat the economy by legalizing beer with low alcohol content and taxing it, which they said would create jobs for craftsmen, bartenders and teamsters, and raise much-needed federal revenue. The jobs claim was bogus, for tens of thousands were working daily, if secretly, to slake the nation’s thirst for suds. But the taxation point had merit.

Barcelona Graduate School of Economics on debt and default in the age of Philip II
The Big Picture on how we ended Glass Steagall
Marginal Revolution on structural employment during the Great Depression
Paul Krugman on the historic reasoning for bank regulation and Steve Horwitz's response
The History Project on supporting the study of economic history
Foreign Afffairs on lessons from the recession
Simon Johnson on why economic history matters

To read more from Echoes, Bloomberg View's economic history blog, click here.

Addressing a meeting convened by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation in Washington this week, Speaker of the House John Boehner vowed to fight any proposal to raise the U.S.'s statutory borrowing limit this fall, unless any increase is offset by spending cuts.

With Election Day approaching, last summer’s fracas over the federal government’s debt limit has returned. Republicans will demand cutting, freezing or privatizing federal programs to rein in spending. Democrats will propose narrowing the deficit by instituting "tax fairness" reforms such as the Buffett rule or by allowing portions of the Bush tax cuts to expire.

On Jan. 27, 1596, Sir Francis Drake died of dysentery aboard his ship off Portobelo, in what is now Panama. He was buried at sea in a lead coffin. It was a sad end to one of the great lives of the 16th century.

Drake had helped the English fleet defeat the Spanish Armada and acquired a vast fortune for himself through a series of daring raids. He also undertook an adventure on Queen Elizabeth I's behalf that would require a historical feat of circumnavigation, severe risks to personal safety -- and a significant infusion of venture capital.

Attention, discount shoppers! It's time for a celebration. This spring, Americans mark half a century of discount retailing -- or would mark it, if they weren't so busy shopping.

Discounting doesn't really have a birth date; the idea that a store can move more goods by knocking down the price is as old as retailing itself. But this spring marks the 50th anniversary of a discounting revolution that helped shape modern retailing.

“Cactus Jack” was not your typical presidential candidate.

Born in a Texas log cabin in 1868, John Nance Garner dropped out of Vanderbilt University after one semester and returned home, where he studied law. He gained admission to the bar in 1890 and secured appointment to a vacant county judgeship.

This year, consumers are expected to spend $18.6 billion on Mother's Day, an increase of 8 percent from last year, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation. The holiday is a major boon to confectioners, card makers, florists and the restaurant industry. And it's certainly popular among moms: The average consumer expects to spend more than $150 on them this year.

The woman who invented Mother's Day would be livid.

History News Network on how Mormon history has shaped Mitt Romney
The Levy Economics Institute on an alternative history of money
The University of Gothenburg on the origins of the Sicilian mafia
The American Numismatic Society on an exhibit about the history of inflation at the New York Fed 
Felix Salmon on the decline of venture capitalism
Marginal Revolution on the "growth of justice" in the U.S.

Read more from Echoes, Bloomberg View's economic history blog, online.

On May 10, 1869, the tracks of the Union Pacific Railroad (extending from Omaha, Nebraska) and the Central Pacific Railroad (extending from the San Francisco Bay area) met in an obscure area of Utah Territory called Promontory Summit, after five years of arduous and often acrimonious construction.

A golden spike was driven to celebrate their joining.

How can excessive debt sink a government? Look no further than New York -- in 1871, under the leadership of the eminently corrupt William M. Tweed.

Today, the U.S. government owes some $15.2 trillion. Its largest group of public creditors comprises foreigners and foreign governments, led by China and Japan. Overseas creditors hold $5.1 trillion in U.S. paper and continue to be big buyers at Treasury auctions. What would happen in the (still unlikely) event they stopped buying?