"Supply-side economics" gained their name from the fact they intended to benefit the suppliers of commercial goods, the businesses and manufacturers who made most of the products in the economy. Supply-side economics is most associated with President Ronald Reagan, who lobbied for massive tax cuts, deregulation of business, and large scale reduction of government spending. During Reagan's eight years in office, he managed to cut taxes, roll back corporate regulations, and slash welfare spending.

The "Labor Movement" was a broad grouping of activists that sought to protect the safety and rights of workers in a variety of working class jobs. Throughout the late-nineteenth century, the full flowering of the Industrial Revolution had produced a widespread manufacturing sector centered on factories that employed children as young as 4, and the work hours were usually between 12 and 15 hours a day, six days a week. The labor movement sought to protect workers' rights in a number of ways, including shortening work hours, eliminating child labor, and unionizing the workforce. Most of all, they stood against the businessmen who owned the factories.

The only one of these programs not created during Roosevelt’s early days in office was the Social Security Administration. Roosevelt was elected at the height of the Great Depression and preached a platform of relief, recovery, and then reform. The idea was that first the government had to provide for relief for the poor and starving masses, and then it needed to assist recovery by creating jobs and encouraging the economy. Reform would follow at a later date to ensure something like the Great Depression could not happen again.

The Great Society was the name given to the Domestic policies of President Lyndon Johnson’s Democratic administration. The primary intentions of the Great Society were the alleviation of poverty through economic growth and the removal of racial injustices, particularly in the South.  The Great Society closely resembled FDR’s New Deal program, both in directive and in scope. 

The Federal Securities Act of 1914 was part of the movement to make corporations more responsible for the unethical practice of misrepresenting company stock. It was part of Wilson’s movement in general towards holding big businesses and banks accountable for their actions which had such dramatic effects on the lives of “average” Americans. 

The term "bootlegger" refers to the illegal sale and transportation of liquor. Bootleggers were particularly wealthy and influential during the Prohibition Era. They were often co-opted into more concrete organizations and some contributed to the foundations of the United States mafia.

The American Federation of Labor is one of the earliest and most prominent collective labor unions in the United States. It was organized from disaffected members of the Knights of Labor and was led in direction and motivation by Samuel Gompers. The American Federation of Labor came into existence during the economically stagnant 1890s, a time when class differences were becoming more pronounced. Socialism was drawing greater and greater support from the working classes, and the originally formed American Federation of Labor was an extremely socialist grouping; however, over the years as the economy continued to grow and conditions for the working classes greatly improved, the American Federation of Labor made its peace with capitalism and worked much more towards fitting into the system, instead of overhauling it. Samuel Gompers wasits leader for every year from its inception in 1886 to his death in the 1920s, (except for 1895). 

The case of Butler v. United States ruled that several components of the Agricultural Adjustment Act were unconstitutional. Primarily it stated that the act violated the proscribed and protected rights of the states to regulate agricultural management and taxation. 

The economic policy of Mercantilism was designed around the premise that the colonies existed to build up the supply of gold in Empire. To achieve this goal a nation had to build up a favorable balance of trade by exporting more than it imported. The primacy of this belief in Europe helped foster the dramatic race for Empire around the globe as each additional resource, manufacturing centre and market helped contribute to the balance of trade. New England shipbuilders benefitted from the Navigation Acts because they protected their enterprise from foreign competition. Southerners found the market for their goods shrinking as it could only be shipped to England, which in turn encouraged smuggling. Conversely, far from being brought closer together, the English and French colonies began to fight extensively in the mid-eighteenth century as English settlers began to spread North and West into French lands. 

The establishment, by John Rolfe in 1619, of tobacco as the primary cash crop of the colony lead directly to economic prosperity in Jamestown and helped stem the tide of winter starvations that had previously blighted the colony. Although aid from the Native Americans was important, it was insufficient to prevent the colony slowly atrophying.