Tag: stock market crash

05/15/11

Obama’s New Deal

The article that I chose is “Obama : Fix Market Regulation” from USA today. Obama came into office at a time of turmoil in our economy. This article is about how Obama and his administration are trying to set new rules and regulations to revive the economy. According to USA today McCain stated “There is a tendency for liberals to seek big government programs that sock it to American taxpayers while failing to solve the very real problems we face.” As you can see that the previous administration believed in very little regulation. Obama stated “Our free market was never meant to be a free license to take whatever you can get, however you can get it. That is why we have put in place rules of the road to make competition fair and open and honest, We have done this not to stifle, but rather to advance, prosperity and liberty.”

 

One of the new regulations that Obama have put in place since he came into office is for credit cards and those who are burdened by debt. An article from MSNBC stated “The new credit card rules… prohibit companies from giving cards to people under 21 unless they can prove they have the means to pay the debt or a parent or guardian co-signs. A customer also will have to be more than 60 days behind on a payment before seeing a rate increase on an existing balance. Even then, the lender will be required to restore the previous, lower rate if the cardholder pays the minimum balance on time for six months.”

 

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-03-27-economy-speech_N.htm

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30884011/ns/business-personal_finance/t/obama-signs-new-rules-credit-cards-law/

05/10/11

Boom and Bust

From around the year 1996 to the year 1999 there was a huge rise is stock market prices. The S&P 500 rose about 20% each of these years, and NASDAQ rose a whopping 500%. These ludicrous rises in prices were due to “dot coms,” or companies that conducted business through the Internet. Americans were getting very excited over the hype of these companies and poured billions into the stock market. However, to everybody’s dismay, the stock market crashed in 2000. The bubble burst on April 14, and stocks plummeted. The market had the greatest one day drop in history! NASDAQ alone fell 80% from its 2000 prices. It wouldn’t be until 2006 that the stock market retuned to its 2000 levels. By 2001 the American economy fell into a recession, not too different from the one we recently had.

What also helped fuel this recession was the greed of corporate America. Many companies lied, cheated, and stole, from their shareholders in order to make huge profits. When these companies were proven to be a scam the companies crashed, pulling down their stockholders with them. The most famous example of this was a Houston based energy company named Enron. Enron was supposed to be showing billions of dollars in profit. It was the hottest company, and took up many magazine covers. Everybody was talking about Enron. However, one day somebody discovered Enron had been lying, and that it had really been operating at a loss. The insiders knew this, and sold the stocks high. Once the company fell most shareholders lost their shirts. Enron wasn’t the only companies pulling scams. Tyco International and GE were also among companies found to be crooked in one way or another. Even respectable companies such as Chase and Citigroup had to pay back investors for selling them worthless stocks.

03/14/11

The Rich Man’s Choice becomes “Poor”

The Great Depression scared all, including the rich. The Stock Market crash and other economic struggles forced Americans to stop purchasing! This in result led to much less production of goods and directly decreased the amount of human labor needed. People continued to loose their jobs and used places like “The POOR MAN’S STORE” as their last resort for trading, buying and selling what goods they did or did not need. On the contrary the first picture on the left, represents a normal environment inside of a store before all economic hell breaks out. Once people begin to refrain from buying because of a shortage of jobs and income, even those people who bought items on installment plans are unable to pay their dues and stores are forced to stock up on inventory: thus putting store owners to a loss.

03/14/11

Life During the Great Depression

 

The Great Depression was one of the hardest times in the United States history for farmers as well. With the stock market crash in 1929 and American economy crushed, the farmers couldn’t make money on their crops, so they also lost $1.50 per acre of land they planted. Having no mercy on the farmers, the elements took their toll. As giant dust storms destroyed fields, it left farmers broke with no way to repair the damage, forcing many to leave their homes in search of different work.

03/13/11

Having no choices

A jobseeker adopts the same strategy in New York during the Great Depression

A shanty town within Central Park, New York. The huts were designed with the idea that they'd been built out of everyday objects

After the stock market crash of October 1929 in New York, million people lost their jobs. Jobseekers started to stand on street with a cardboard which depicts the basic information of them. However, the unemployment rate was increasing and those jobseekers could not still afford their renting and housing. As a result, they used some trash to build huts and settled the huts to form a town, called “Hooverville” because they believed President Hoover’s policies lead the nation into depression.

03/11/11

Great Depression

A Normal Stock market, Just what he wanted. Wish denied. This Cartoon is fro 1929.
Artist: William Kemp Starrett, appeared in Life Magazine.

The Stock Market crash in New York of 1929.

The Great Depression started in October 1929 with the stock market crash in New York.
The first image shows how people wanted the stock market to go back to normal. Like shown on the picture, they wanted it as a gift just like how Santa Claus would be able to give them that. The second picture is more of a realistic form of the stock market crash. All the people in front of the Stock Market wanting to take back their money. These two pictures show how the Stock Market Crash was the very cause of the Great Depression.

03/7/11

The Stock Market Crash of 1929

After World War I, the United States had an extensive economic expansion due to new technologies and enhanced production processes. The Stock Market benefited from the expanding economy. Eventually the Stock Market Crashed on 1929. Many banks tried to collect loans made to stock market investors since their holdings were worth nothing at all. When people found out that the banks’ assets contained uncollectable loans, depositors rushed to withdraw their savings, concerned about the security of their bank. Several thousand banks began to fail due to the panic. In result of the Stock Market Crash, many people lost their entire saving, many companies failed, and peoples’ faith in banks was destroyed. This event triggered the beginning of the Great Depression.

02/8/11

Stock market crash:1929

The stock market crash on October 24, 1929  is remembered as one of the most devastating event in Wall Street history. In the weeks leading up to the crash, the market was very unstable.A record of 12.9 million shares were traded on that day .The Dow Jones Industrial Average partially recovered in November- December 1929 and early 1930; however reversed and crashed again.The crash began a 12 year depression that would plague the nation. People came to remember this day as Black Thursday in America and Black Friday in Europe. Combined the stock market crash and the Great Depression caused the biggest financial crisis of the 20th century.