Since it is a little slow now, I thought I would treat y'all once again to one of my pet theories--the "odd-year panic."
Perhaps because of our election cycle, most of the major financial panics in the United States have occurred in odd calendar years. To wit:
1819-Bad banking practices during James Monroe’s administration and the aftermath of the War of 1812 sent the nation into an economic panic that lasted until 1821.
[Madison’s 3rd year in office]
1837-Response to Andrew Jackson’s refusal to renew the charter of the Bank of the United States, in favor of a new National Bank.
[Van Buren’s 1st year in office]
1857-Panic ignited by the collapse of the New York office of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company.
[Buchanan’s 1st year in office]
1873-Ignited by the failure of the banking firm of Jay Cooke & Co., of Philadelphia, the financiers of the Northern Pacific Railroad.
[Grant’s 5th year in office]
1893-Begun by the collapse of the U.S. Cordage Company on the NYSE.
[Cleveland’s 1st year of his second, non-sequential, term in office]
1907-Set off by the failure of the Knickerbocker Trust Company in New York.
[Teddy Roosevelt’s 7th year in office]
1929-Set off by the wild speculation caused by lax margin requirements in purchasing securities. Some say that the business-killing Smoot-Hawley tariff, designed originally to aid farmers, contributed, inasmuch as everyone knew that it would be passed in the spring of 1930.
[Hoover’s 1st year in office]
1973-Instantaneous reaction to an oil embargo by OPEC.
[Nixon’s 5th year in office; he only did 6 years, remember?]
1979-More oil woes when the Shah of Iran leaves the Peacock Throne
[Carter’s 3rd year in office]
1987- High interest rates or sunspots—take your pick.
[Reagan’s 7th year in office]
2003-Final unraveling of the largest stock market bubble the world has ever known. Actually, this panic was postponed six months by an ill-fated attempt by then-Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan to reflate the stock bubble.
[Geo. W. Bush’s 3rd year in office]
Opinions?
schloss
AI
