Eccles, FDR, and James Roosevelt (FDR's son)
The Great Depression lasted from the stock market crash in 1929 until World War 2. In the middle of this economic crisis, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed Utahn Marriner Eccles to become the Fed Chair. Robert Reich has high praise for Eccles in his latest book Aftershock, even going so far as to rate both Paul Volcker and Alan Greenspan as “no Marriner Eccles.” Frankly, I was astonished at Reich’s praise for Eccles throughout the book. From chapter 1 to the end of the book, Reich repeatedly referred to Eccles. On page 11, Reich gives a bit of background on Eccles, Read more…
I’ve had Google Analytics installed since June 2009. In that time, I’ve had visits from all over the world. The largest (by land mass) country that has never visited my site is Greenland. Obviously I’m not a big hit there. So, if you have a friend in Greenland, tell them I’d love to welcome them to my blog, (they don’t even have to comment!)
I’ve been visited by nearly every country in South America– Read more…
Last October, I wrote a post titled, Mormon Women Blessing the Sick, as a follow up to my post on Women with Priesthood in Ancient Christianity. Jonathon Stapley was the first to comment, saying
Equating early Mormon female healing with evidence of female priesthood is folly. Kris’ and my paper on female ritual healing is finally coming out in January (JMH). We treat most of your questions and clean up the historiography a bit.
In the interim here is our paper on the development of Mormon healing to 1847, including the role of women.
Well, I didn’t actually equate healing with female priesthood, but there is an interesting connection. I am finally getting around to reviewing Jonathan and Kristine Wright’s (abbrev SW) paper which was published in the Journal of Mormon History in the summer of 2009. Read more…
The debate about what to do about immigration problems is a big issue in Utah and other states. St. George’s newspaper, the Spectrum has reported that Stephen Sandstrom, a Republican from Orem is sponsoring a bill that
would allow local law enforcement to check people’s residency or citizenship status if officers have “reasonable suspicion” they have entered the country illegally. It would also allow for a warrantless arrest if an officer has a “reasonable suspicion” that the person they are facing is here illegally.
Read more…
I really appreciate a comment by Chris Spencer on my previous post Dueling Wordprint Studies. In that post, I had discussed a controversial study completed by Stanford researchers Mathew Jockers, Daniela Witten, and Craig Criddle who concluded that 57% the Book of Mormon was authored by Sidney Rigdon and Solomon Spaulding. (There was an interesting discussion at Mormon Matters as well.) Part of the reason they had Rigdon and Spaulding as candidate authors was due to the Spaulding Theory. Here’s a bit of background.
Read more…
Just 9 days prior to Joseph Smith’s death, he sent a letter to James Strang. Strang believed that this letter showed Joseph’s intentions that Strang would be the next prophet of the church. This letter was originally published in a pamphlet by Strang’s followers known as “The Diamond.” I have always wanted to read the actual letter, and I received an email from Tim Hansen, a high priest in the Strangite church with a copy of the letter. He graciously said I could re-print it here, and also noted that it is available as a PDF on their website, along with the rest of “The Diamond”.
Read more…
I don’t know what to make out of Egypt. Everyone thinks Mubarak will step down, but he hasn’t yet. The protests are getting uglier. So will this end more like the fall of the Berlin Wall, or like Tiannamen Square? Will Egypt be more like Iran’s government or Turkey? Is democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan spreading to places like Egypt, Jordan, and Tunisia? What the heck is going on in Tunisia anyway?
Feel free to answer any of these questions, because I really haven’t a clue–especially when it comes to Tunisia.
Recent Comments