Lessons we can learn from America’s First Gilded Age — Market Mad House

America is going through a dark time. All around us we see dysfunctional government, rising income inequality, growing poverty, incredible levels of political corruption, and increasing racism.

Those problems spark social unrest, violence, and increasing political extremism. The good news is that America has triumphed over such conditions before in the first Gilded Age (roughly 1870–1914).

In 1900, America’s situation seemed hopeless; a billionaire class of robber barons controlled…