Initiated by the Global Development and Environment Institute, Tufts University (GDAE) and the Washington, DC-based Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), this economist statement calls for negotiators of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement to recognize that capital controls are legitimate prudential financial regulations that should not be subject to investor claims under trade and investment treaties.

Following a number of official and academic findings that show capital controls are legitimate tools to prevent and mitigate financial crises, an increasing number of governments around the world are using capital controls and other macro-prudential measures in responsible ways to deal with heightened international financial instability. 

Meanwhile, the Obama administration is negotiating the “Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement” with the nations of Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Peru, Singapore, New Zealand, and Vietnam. The treaty has been hailed by the Obama administration as one that will right past wrongs and be a trade agreement “for the 21st century.” It is imperative that 21st century trade agreements leave all nations with the tools to prevent and mitigate financial crises.

"Thus, we recommend that the TPPA permit governments to deploy capital controls without being subject to investor lawsuits, as part of a broader menu of policy options to prevent and mitigate financial crises."

Most Americans have a vague idea that D. W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation is a landmark film in US history. Savvy students of film history can pinpoint it as a 1915 silent film in the vein of Leni Riefenstahl's later Triumph of the Will, i.e. "a great film that argues for evil" (Roger Ebert). In the case of Birth of a Nation, the film helped launch and recruit for the second coming of the Ku Klux Klan.

This I knew. What I didn't know? African-American director Oscar Micheaux wrote, produced, and released his own cinematic take on the aftermath of the US Civil War  - 'Within Our Gates' - within five years of Griffith's film.

From Why I’ll Watch Oscar Micheaux’s Within Our Gates until I Wear It Out  by historian W. Fitzhugh Brundage:

a collection of funny, strange, poignant and just plain bizarre personal ads from the nineteenth century

Matrimonial. - A young unmarried cavalry officer, who intends to serve his country till "this cruel war is over," desires, should he be slain during the war, to leave an heir to his name and inheritance.  He therefore wishes to open correspondence with a view to matrimony with a patriotic young lady of intelligence, accomplishments, common sense, &c.  Address K, Nineteenth New York cavalry, Manassas Junction, Va

A gentleman of a serious turn of mind is anxious to correspond with a lively, good hearted, romping, skating, and withal lovable young lady, with a view to matrimony. Those possessing great beauty need not apply. Address Thomas Phenix, New York Post office.