News

The US government is $16,828,845,497,183.90 in debt (but who's counting?). How did we get here? Talk about the origins of our debt, and you'll start a conversation about policy in the last few years, maybe the last decade. But, as MoAF President David Cowen explains to The Motley Fool's Morgan Housel, the real origins go back much farther than that.

There is a common perception that old news is worthless, but old news can often teach you more about the future than current news. MoAF President David Cowen provides a great example of the value of old news.

The Motley Fool's Morgan Housel asks David Cowen, CEO of the Museum of American Finance and a financial historian, what he thinks of Wall Street's boom-bust cycle.

The Motley Fool's Morgan Housel asks MoAF President/CEO David Cowen what the Crash of 2008 was like from the perspective of a financial historian.

On Friday, April 26, the Museum will launch an updated version of "Tracking the Credit Crisis: A Timeline." Presented as a monumental 7 ft. x 56 ft. graphic wall, the exhibit traces the development of the most recent financial crisis from the bursting of the housing bubble through the unprecedented trillions of dollars being guaranteed and injected into the private sector by the US government.

On Friday, April 12, current and former NFL players studying for their MBAs spoke about the value of education and financial literacy to 7th and 8th grade students in the Museum's Center for Financial Education.

Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries floor traders at U.S. stock exchanges engaged in elaborate and often bizarre pranks, and not just on April Fool's Day.

A brief, visual history of trading technology, from ticker tape to the present, featuring several images from the Museum's collection.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average goes back to May 26, 1896. Richard Sylla goes a lot farther back than that. Sylla, an economist at the Stern School of Business at New York University and chairman of the Museum of American Finance, is one of the nation’s most eminent financial historians. He is a natural source to put the Dow’s latest record in long-term context.

An interesting article on investors vs. speculators by WSJ reporter Jason Zweig, which references a "brilliant essay" published in our magazine.

MoAF's Deputy Director writes about the controversial history of "Monopoly" on Bloomberg's Echoes blog.

Dr. Richard Sylla's talk on Alexander Hamilton's Economic Legacy, co-presented by the Museum of American Finance and the Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society in January, aired on C-SPAN the weekend of February 23-24 and is now available online.

MoAF's Deputy Director writes about the history of Barings Bank on Bloomberg's Echoes blog.

Bill Cunningham highlights the Museum in his "The Arts, Actually" column.

Change in the financial industry is a constant theme at the museum, whose exhibitions include a 1792 treasury bond issued to George Washington as well as information on hedge funds and electronic trading. The 25-year-old institution has a $3.6 million budget and last year had 43,000 visitors. The newest temporary exhibition lets visitors weigh in on five investments made by Barings Bank, including the Louisiana Purchase.