Posts Tagged ‘FDR’
“Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination”*…
A remarkable true tale from the always-illuminating folks at Planet Money…
This is a story about how an economist and his buddies tricked the people of Brazil into saving the country from rampant inflation. They had a crazy, unlikely plan, and it worked.
Twenty years ago, Brazil’s inflation rate hit 80 percent per month. At that rate, if eggs cost $1 one day, they’ll cost $2 a month later. If it keeps up for a year, they’ll cost $1,000…
“How Fake Money Saved Brazil,” from @planetmoney and @NPR.
For an even more complete telling, listen to the podcast: “How Four Drinking Buddies Saved Brazil.”
* Oscar Wilde
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As we follow the money, we might recall that it was on this date in 1941, in his State of the Union Address, the president Franklin D. Roosevelt outlined the Four Freedoms— the fundamental values of democracy: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear. These precepts were furthered by Eleanor Roosevelt, who incorporated them into the Preamble to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
No, literally…
Look at that giant amoeba.
From The Monkeys You Ordered, “literal New Yorker captions.”
It's 7:30
I’m dressed like a cowboy!
Many more at The Monkeys You Ordered.
As we sharpen our specificity, we might recall that it was on this date in 1943 that Frank C. Walker, FDR’s Postmaster General, introduced the Postal Code system: the Zone Code– the two digit signifier included in urban addresses until the introduction of zip codes, e.g.:
Ms. Margaret Mitchell
1001 Peachtree Avenue
Atlanta 13, Georgia
With the introduction of the Zip Code, the Zone Code became the last two digits of the five-digit locator.
Walker watching the President mail a letter with a Zone address (source: Smithsonian)
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