The Capitalist Culture That Built America

Brown Brothers Harriman. Never heard of it? In the firm's first hundred years, it helped to make paper currency standard in the US, underwrote the easiest railroad and trans-Atlantic steamship companies and created the first foreign exchange system between the US dollar and British pound. It went on in the 20th century to shape the global economic and security systems that remain the world's institutional architecture. As the US faces the challenge of reinventing itself in the post-pandemic future, the story of Brown Brothers Harriman offers crucial lessons. In this SDG we will explore how to take the power of money so that it builds up rather than tears down; how to ensure that those who have benefited greatly from American capitalism serve and contribute in return; and how the US might once again play a global role to increase the prosperity and security for all. Brown Brothers Harriman grappled with those questions for more than 200 years. Now we all have to do the same.