Tony Soprano

Government Rule Changes Buy Time, But Will They Bail the U.S. Out?

Since there is so much angst directed toward the Fed and the US Government, I decided to listed some events, not all of them, that had dramatic ramifications on lives, cost and the psychology of our country. I started in 1906 because it’s just a little over a hundred years. As I compiled the list, I could not help but feel the great sacrifices that many American’s have made and what a resilient country, economy and government we have in American.

The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and fire, registered 8.25 on the Richter scale; estimates range from 700 to 3,000 dead or missing, approximately 225,000 injuries and $400,000,000 in 1906 dollars.

Recession, May 1907-June 1908, 13 mo

Recession Jan. 1910-Jan. 1912, 24 months

Completion of the Panama Canal, 1914 – 27,500 workers are estimated to have died

Recession Jan. 1913-Dec. 1914 23 months

World War I -- 116,708 killed – 33 billion

Spanish influenza, 1918, killed over 500,000 people in the worst single U.S. epidemic.

Recession Aug. 1918-March 1919 7 months

Recession Jan. 1920-July 1921, 18 months

Recession May 1923-July 1924 14 months

Recession Oct. 1926-Nov. 1927 13 months

The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, flooded 27,000 square miles, 246 killed

The Great Depression, Black Tuesday, crop prices fell by 40 to 60 percent, after the panic of 1929, and during the first 10 months of 1930, 744 US banks failed. (In all, 9,000 banks failed during the 1930s). By 1933, depositors had lost $140 billion in deposits.

The Dirty Thirties, longest drought of 20th century. Peak periods were 1930, 1934, 1936, 1939, and 1940. The "dust bowl" covered 50 million acres in the south-central plains during the winter of 1935-1936.

Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, 400 killed

Recession May 1937-June 1938 13 months

World War II – 408,306 killed – 360 billion

Wartime Controls: 1941-1945 rationed consumer items ranging from sugar to gasoline

Recession Feb. 1945-Oct. 1945 8 months

The Marshall Plan, July 1947 – 13 billion in economic and technical assistance were given to help the recovery of the European countries

Recession Nov. 1948-Oct. 1949 11 months

Korean War, July 1951 - July 1953 – 33,000 killed in action

Recession July 1953-May 1954 10 months

Recession Aug. 1957-April 1958 8 months

Recession April 1960-Feb. 1961 10 months

The Cold War, some estimates shows $8 trillion was spent, worldwide, on nuclear and other weapons between 1945 and 1996

The Cuban Missile Crisis, Oct. 1962

Good Friday Earthquake (1964) In Alaska, it was the fourth biggest earthquake recorded

Vietnam War, 1963 – 47,378 killed in action

The murder of JFK, 1963 Nov

The Gulf of Tonkin Incident, Aug 1964

The murder of Dr King, April 1968 and Bobby Kennedy, June 1968

The city riots of April, 1968 – 30 cities affected

Hurricane Camille, Aug 1969, 259 killed

Recession Dec. 1969-Nov. 1970 11 months

Stagflation of the 1970s began

Nixon first imposed wage and price controls on August 15, 1971

Oil Embargo, Oct 1973 long gas lines

Recession Nov. 1973-March 1975 16 months

Articles of Impeachment of Nixon started
(Approved by a vote of 27-11 by the House Judiciary Committee on Saturday, July 27, 1974.)

Deregulation: 1974-1992 this era began when Nixon left office

Three Mile Island nuclear power plant crisis, March 1979

Mount St. Helens eruption 1980

Recession Jan. 1980-July 1980 6 months

Prime reached unbelievable 20% in January 1981,

AIDS was first reported June 5, 1981 by the government – It is thought that more than one million people are living with HIV in the USA and that more than half a million have died after developing AIDS.

Recession July 1981-Nov. 1982 16 months

California earthquake 1983

The 87 market crash - Black Monday

California earthquake, 1989

Recession July 1990-March 1991 8 months

Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990

The Persian Gulf War, 1991 or Desert Storm Jan 1991

Hurricane Andrew 1992 very destructive United States hurricane

The Great USA Flood of 1993

Intervention in the Former Yugoslavia,

Dot Com Bubble, climaxed on March 10th, 2000 with the NASDAQ peaking at 5132.52

9/11 Attack, 2,974 people died

Recession March 2001-Nov. 2001 8 months, Airline Industry Collapsed

Enron bankruptcy in late 2001, employed 22,000

WorldCom, July 21, 2002, filed for Chapter 11

Iraq War, March 19, 2003 – 4,000 dead

Hurricane Katrina, late August 2005, 1,836 people lost their lives

Start of the Great Housing Recession or Sub-prime Recession 2006 or 07, 08? Date to be determined.

A Sensible and Refreshing Move from the Fed

for Mr NoFate

"Here is an analogy ...your teenager has maxed out their credit cards and is to a point they can no longer make payments. You step in as a co-signer and get the limits on the cards doubled.

Is this the right decision? This is what the Fed did for the banks yesterday."

It’s a good simple story and to a large degree I agree with your story. Here is my view of the story.

The son does use a credit card but instead of spending it on himself he wants to lend out the money and become loan shark. His idea is to lend out as much money that he can. In the mean time people that he is lending out to all live on an island. The island depends on a dike system to keep the island from going underwater. The dikes take an enormous amount of power to run. The islanders are taxed a lot to keep the power going..

The loan business is slow starting and the son wants it to grow much faster. His rich daddy is still backing him up and thinks his son is remarkable. The son's new business plan offers loan owners interest in a new waterfront country club if they barrow more. They see it as a steal and it makes them feel rich so they barrow more. His new business plan is a success for many years. The new country club is well under construction. Most of the people on the island are happy and think they have it made. The son pockets a good deal of wealth but he always wants more and more.

As more time passes, the cost of the power to run the dikes starts to increase rapidly. Sadly some of the islanders become sick. The doctors on the island suspect the Avian virus. Some even die and others cannot work. Unemployment starts to rise dramatically and the power for the dikes continues to rise.

Not all of the islanders owe money to the son. Many are still wealthy and never liked what the son has done and they are very much concerned about the rising cost to power for the dikes. More time passes and construction cost for the country club increases as well. Construction on the project starts to slow down. Many on the island start to become angry.

Taxes receipts to pay for the power for the dikes starts to diminish. Some of the islanders want to raise taxes to pay for the power. The islanders that are sick are not paying taxes. A meeting is called. The meeting is a failure and the son goes into hiding. However, the islanders come up with another plan but still many on the island do not like the newer plan as well

The newer plan requires the islanders to barrow more money but from the mainland. The wealthy on the island do not like this plan because it will require them to pay more taxes in the future. However, some of the middle class people on the island become restless and crime increases.

The islanders are at a serious crossroad. Damned if they do and damned if they don’t. Many on the island say the island will sink completely underwater if new monies are not borrowed. Others do not agree and feel the island will be on okay without the additional debt.

I’m not going to finish this story. I will let your imagination do the rest.

My point is we can let GM or Ford go under and we will still have cars. However, we cannot take this chance with the banks. Banks are the corner stone, hence the island metaphor, of our capitalism. If the banks sink we all sink. We cannot afford to take the slightest chance that this will spread further and sink us all. At the same time its a shame that a lot of our mortgage companies, brokerages firms and money center banks let this happen.

A Sensible and Refreshing Move from the Fed

Excellent!!!

Thanks for taking the time to blog and point out some very good facts that need to be stated. Your blog is non-emotional and unlike most blogs sticks to the facts.

Please come by the Bada Bing for a drink. I would love to have you.