USA: Credit crisis - timeline
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Timeline
- August 2007. The Federal Reserve reduces its discount rate on loans to banks by a half percentage point (from 6.25 to 5.75 per cent); The European Central Bank (ECB) injects €95 billion (US$1.00=0.7311 euros as at Aug. 10, 2007) into the EU banking system to provide additional liquidity.
- October 2006. Jeffrey Skilling, the former chief executive of Enron Corp., is sentenced to a term of 24 years and four months' imprisonment following his conviction in May on 19 counts of fraud, conspiracy, and insider trading.
- March 2005. Bernie Ebbers, the former chief executive of the telecommunications company WorldCom Inc., is convicted of orchestrating an US$11 billion accounting fraud, which ultimately led to the largest bankruptcy in US history.
- February 2005. President George W. Bush delivers his State of the Union address in which he says “we must be good stewards of this economy”.
- January 2005. A UN report, World Economic Situation and Prospects 2005, warns that major imbalances in the global economy pose a significant threat to stability, singling out the US budget and trade deficits and calling on the USA to cut government expenditure and increase savings.
- October 2003. Official statistics indicate that the USA’s GDP has grown in the third quarter of 2003 by the fastest quarterly rate (7.2 per cent) since 1984, fuelled by tax cuts, mortgage refinancing, and increased military expenditure.
- April 2003. Official figures released by the US department of labour indicate that despite a series of interest rate cuts over the last two years, which had left rates at their lowest level since the early 1960s, the economy remained sluggish.
- August 2002. Revised figures released by the US department of commerce reveal that the US economy had entered into a state of recession for the first three quarters of 2001.
- August 2002. Scott Sullivan, the former chief financial officer of WorldCom Inc., and Buford Yates, WorldCom's former director of general accounting, are indicted on securities fraud and other charges relating to the collapse of the telecommunications company.
- November 2001. In its twice-yearly Economic Outlook, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD–the 30-member grouping of the world's wealthiest economies) suggests that the world economy is already in a recession triggered by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the USA.
- October 2001. The House of Representatives (the lower house of Congress, the US bicameral federal legislature) approves a US$100 billion economic stimulus plan to boost the US economy in the aftermath of the attacks on New York City and Washington, DC (the capital).
- September 2001. Terrorists launch a series of suicide attacks against targets in New York City and Washington DC.
- April 2001. The House of Representatives completes its consideration of President Bush's proposed 10-year US$1,600 billion programme of tax cuts and approves the abolition of the federal estate tax over a 10-year period.
- March 2001. The House of Representatives approves across the board income tax cuts, which will reduce federal government revenue by US$958 billion over 10 years.
- January 2001. The Federal Reserve reduces from 6.5 per cent to 5.5 per cent its key federal funds target rate, amid concerns over declining financial markets and the effect on consumer confidence of high energy prices.
- April 2000. The Nasdaq composite index (composed of technology stocks) suffers record losses as it plunges over 7 per cent (350 points).
- April 1999. The ECB says that a half a percentage point cut in the bank’s benchmark interest rate, to 2.5 per cent, will stimulate economic growth at a time when business confidence is low and the euro-zone's leading economies are suffering from the impact of recession and financial turmoil in Japan, south-east Asia, Russia, and Latin America.
- February 1996. A report issued by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) concludes that the Rose law firm, in which Hillary Clinton (wife of President Bill Clinton) is a partner, will not be sued for its role in the failure of the Madison Guaranty savings and loan association.
- March 1991. A crisis of confidence among US savings and loan institutions is temporarily relieved when the House of Representatives approves the provision of some US$30,000 million of interim funding for the industry.
- October 1986. President Ronald Reagan signs the Tax Reform Act of 1986, generally considered to be the most sweeping reform of the US federal tax code since World War II.
- February 1981. President Reagan announces the “Economic Recovery Programme”, substantially altering the provisions of the projected budget and coinciding with the worst economic recession since the
- January 1981. Reagan is inaugurated as the 40th president of the USA.
- December 1973. Sharp increases in the price of oil are announced by most of the major oil-exporting countries.
- November 1971. The second phase of a US government programme designed to reduce inflation comes into effect.
- August 1971. In the face of the “dollar crisis”, President Richard Nixon announces a series of economic measures designed to correct domestic and external imbalances in the US economy.
- May 1970. Reflecting the current inflationary situation in the USA, US share prices fall sharply and experience further severe fluctuations in June and July.
- January 1967. President Lyndon Johnson sends to Congress a report outlining the progress of the US economy.
- December 1966. President Johnson announces that a programme of “voluntary restraint” on foreign investment by US companies will be extended for a further year to the end of 1967.
- February 1965. President Johnson outlines to Congress the USA's balance-of-payments position, which remain unsatisfactory despite measures to reduce the outflow of US gold reserves.
- May 1962. The New York stock exchange experience its most severe fall since “Black Tuesday” in 1929.
- January 1961. In his first State of the Union message, President John F. Kennedy vows to take immediate action to remedy the “disturbing” state of the US economy caused by “the wake of seven months of recession”, rising unemployment, and the deficit in the USA's balance of payments.
- May 1958. An economic recession in the USA, the first signs of which appeared in 1957, leads to a steep rise in unemployment during the first few months of 1958.
- March/April 1958. In fresh anti-recession moves, the US Federal Reserve Board announces reductions in both the discount rates of Federal Reserve Banks and in reserve requirements of member banks.
- January 1953. President Harry Truman submits a report to Congress on the progress of the US economy since 1929.
- February 1940. President Franklin D. Roosevelt outlines the progress of the “New Deal”.
- December 1936. US government figures suggest that the US economy is recovering from the “great depression”.
- March 1933. Congress approves a series of economic measures, including the creation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Company (FDIC), established to refund losses to deposit holders affected by bank failures.
- February 1933. President Herbert Hoover urges Congress to adopt a series of measures designed to combat economic depression.
- September 1932. President Hoover outlines a programme of national relief designed to provide food and shelter to those people made unemployed by the “great depression”.
- August 1932. President Hoover opens an “Anti-Depression Conference”.
- February 1932. The Federal Reserve Bank Bill empowers the Federal Reserve to grant credit to groups of five or more member banks at a rate of discount that is at least one per cent higher than the prevailing rate of discount.
- December 1931. President Hoover delivers his annual State of the Union address, in which he outlines emergency measures designed to combat the “great depression”.
