What the Glass-Steagall Act did — separated commercial and investment banking after 1929

Why Nixon ended the gold standard in 1971 — foreign governments were redeeming dollars for gold

Nixon ended the gold standard to prevent dollar devaluation and stop foreign redemption for gold

What the tulip mania of 1637 demonstrated — the first recorded speculative bubble

Tulip mania showed the potential for economic collapse due to irrational speculative bubbles

What the dot-com bubble was — internet stocks soared on speculation then crashed in 2000-2002

Speculative rise and subsequent crash of internet-based companies in the late 1990s and early 2000s

What fractional reserve banking means — banks lend out most of their deposits

Fractional reserve banking allows banks to lend out a majority of their deposits while maintaining a reserve ratio

What reserve requirements do — mandate how much cash banks must hold against deposits

Reserve requirements dictate the percentage of deposits banks must keep as cash reserves

What laissez-faire economics argues — minimal government intervention in markets

Laissez-faire economics argues for limited government involvement in economic activities