scholarly journals The Savings of Ordinary Americans: The Philadelphia Saving Fund Society in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

1994 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 735-767 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Alter ◽  
Claudia Goldin ◽  
Elyce Rotella
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Physical Property ◽  
The United States ◽  
Annual Income ◽  
Savings Behavior ◽  
Savings Accounts ◽  
Savings Bank ◽  
Large Nest ◽  
Saving Rates ◽  
Life Cycle Savings

We explore the savings behavior of ordinary Americans through their accounts at the Philadelphia Saving Fund Society, the oldest mutual savings bank in the United States. Our sample contains all 2,374 accounts opened in 1850. Savings accounts were generally brief affairs, but median balances mounted to about three-quarters of annual income in three years. Deposits and withdrawals were infrequent, but substantial. Only female servants, as a group, used their accounts for life-cycle savings, eventually amassing large nest eggs. Men often used them to hold funds before acquiring physical property. We estimate saving rates between 10 and 15 percent on active accounts.

Networks and Opportunities: A Digital History of Ireland’s Great Famine Refugees in New York

2019 ◽  
Vol 124 (5) ◽  
pp. 1591-1629 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tyler Anbinder ◽  
Cormac Ó Gráda ◽  
Simone A. Wegge
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
The United States ◽  
Electronic Version ◽  
Easy Access ◽  
Digital History ◽  
Irish Famine ◽  
Savings Bank ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
History Of

Abstract For decades, historians portrayed the immigrants who arrived in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century fleeing the great Irish Famine as a permanent proletariat, doomed to live out their lives in America in poverty due to illiteracy, nativism, and a lack of vocational skills. Recent research, however, primarily by economic historians, has demonstrated that large numbers of Famine refugees actually fared rather well in the United States, saving surprising sums in bank accounts and making strides up the American socioeconomic ladder. These scholars, however, have never attempted to explain why some Famine immigrants thrived in the U.S. while others struggled merely to scrape by. Utilizing the unusually detailed records of New York’s Emigrant Savings Bank in conjunction with the methods of the digital humanities, this article seeks to understand what characteristics separated those Irish Famine immigrants who fared well financially from those who did not. Analysis of a database of more than 15,000 depositors suggests that networking was the key to economic advancement for the Famine immigrants. Those who lived in residential enclaves with other immigrants born in the same Irish parish saved significantly more than other immigrants, and those who created employment niches based on an Irish birthplace also amassed more wealth than those who did not. The electronic version of the article provides easy access to the database and interactive maps, allowing readers to ask their own questions of the data. The article also fleshes out the life stories of many of the immigrants found in the database, using documents found on genealogy websites such as Ancestry.com. These handwritten census records, ship manifests, and bank ledgers are hyperlinked to the electronic version of the article. That makes this essay ideal for classroom use—students can move effortlessly to the documents that underpin each paragraph and see clearly how historians use archival evidence to formulate arguments and shape historical narratives.

Maxxed Out: TJX Companies and the Largest-Ever Consumer Data Breach

2017 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Russell Walker
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Credit Card ◽  
The United States ◽  
List Type ◽  
Data Breach ◽  
Royal Canadian Mounted Police ◽  
Operational Risks ◽  
Savings Bank ◽  
Security Standards ◽  
The U.S

In November 2005 Fidelity Homestead, a savings bank in Louisiana, began noticing suspicious charges from Mexico and southern California on its customers' credit cards. More than a year later, an audit revealed peculiarities in the credit card data in the computer systems of TJX Companies, the parent company of more than 2,600 discount fashion and home accessories retail stores in the United States, Canada, and Europe.The U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Justice Department, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police found that hackers had penetrated TJX's systems in mid-2005, accessing information that dated as far back as 2003. TJX had violated industry security standards by failing to update its in-store wireless networks and by storing credit card numbers and expiration dates without adequate encryption. When TJX announced the intrusion in January 2007, it admitted that hackers had compromised nearly 46 million debit and credit card numbers, the largest-ever data breach in the United States.After analyzing and discussing the case, students should be able to: Understand imbedded operational risks Analyze how operational risk decisions are made in a firm Understand the challenges in the electronic payment transmission process, which relies on each participant in the process to operate best-in-class safety systems to ensure the safety of the entire process Recognize the sophistication of IT security threats

Masters Swimmers Use More Dietary Supplements Than a Large National Comparison Population in the United States

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally K. Guthrie ◽  
Steven R. Erickson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Dietary Supplements ◽  
National Health ◽  
Adult Population ◽  
The United States ◽  
Annual Income ◽  
Nutrition Examination Survey ◽  
Highly Educated ◽  
Health And Nutrition ◽  
National Comparison

The use of dietary supplements was compared between a cohort of committed exercisers, U.S. Masters Swimming (USMS) members (n = 1,042), and the general U.S. population, exemplified by respondents to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2009 to 2010 (n = 6,209). USMS swimmers were significantly more likely to take dietary supplements (62%) than the general U.S. adult population, as represented by the NHANES population (37%). Those taking dietary supplements were older, more likely to be female and Caucasian, and more highly educated and affluent than those not taking supplements (p < .001 for all). When adjusted for age, race, gender, annual income, and education, masters swimmers were still more likely (p < .001) to use dietary supplements than the NHANES cohort. In addition, masters swimmers were significantly more likely (p < .001) to use either creatine or dehydroepiandrosterone or testosterone than those in the NHANES cohort.

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