How the Business World Has Been Transformed, From the Democratization of Capital to the Rise and Fall of Labor
WALL STREET JOURNAL REPORTS: LEADERSHIP 125 Years of Change in the U.S. Economy—and the Dow How the Business World Has Been Transformed, From the Democratization of Capital to the Rise and Fall of Labor By JOHN STEELE GORDON July 7, 2014 For the past 125 years, The Wall Street Journal has been covering the evolution of the American economic ecosystem and the businesses that make it up. It has thus chronicled the most extraordinary period of economic change and growth in world history. A DIFFERENT WORLD Indeed, the business world of 1889 today seems almost something from an alien planet. Offices were nearly totally masculine preserves. About the only jobs for women outside the home were as teachers, nurses and telephone operators. Almost all large corporations were run by members of the WASP establishment. Ledgers were mostly handwritten, as were most invoices and even many contracts. There were no standardized rules for keeping books, and almost no government regulation of busi