Some things never change -- the first depression in U.S. history was very similar to all future economic downturns, including today's.

The Panic of 1819 sparked a crisis that featured price drops, bank failures, mortgage foreclosures, and mass unemployment. The main culprit in the economic downturn was the Second Bank of the United States (forerunner to today’s Federal Reserve System). The Bank offered bad (and sometimes fraudulent) loans and printed paper money that fueled overspeculation and inflation.

In the most important judicial decision in U.S. history, the Supreme Court empowered itself to be the final authority on the legality of government activity. This shifted the balance of government power to the judiciary, upset the federalist system envisoned by the founders, and enabled federal courts--consisting of unelected officials--to dominate public policy through their rulings.

President Theodore Roosevelt’s interventionist foreign policy subverted the Constitution and helped transform America into the most powerful nation on Earth.

Describing his foreign policy, Roosevelt quoted a West African proverb: "Speak softly and carry a big stick." As president, Roosevelt used "big stick diplomacy" to seize unprecedented executive power in handling international affairs.

Although it received little press attention, the federal government effectively seized control of all college student loans as part of the Affordable Care Act (i.e., Obamacare). The government intervention in higher education has had just as abysmal a record as interventions in health care, and it has been made even worse by President Obama’s plan to implement new federal student loan rules.