The 100 Most Important American Financial Crises: An Encyclopedia of the Lowest Points in American Economic History

by Quentin R. Skrabec Jr.

Overview

The United States has fairly recently experienced the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. But crippling financial crises are hardly unusual: economic emergencies have occurred throughout American history and can be seen as a cyclical and "normal" (if undesirable) aspect of an economic system. This encyclopedia supplies objective, accessible, and interesting entries on 100 major U.S. financial crises from the Colonial era to today that have had tremendous domestic impact—and in many cases, global impact as well.

The entries explore the history and impact of major economic events, including banking crises, economic shortages, recessions, national strikes and labor upheavals, natural resource shortages, panics, real estate bubbles, social upheavals, and the collapse of specific American industries such as rubber and steel production. Students will find this book an essential ready-reference on key events in American economic history that documents how and why these events led to significant financial and economic problems throughout the United States and around the globe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781440830129
Publisher:	ABC-CLIO, Incorporated
Publication date:	12/09/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	337
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Quentin R. Skrabec Jr., PhD, is professor of business at the University of Findlay, Findlay, OH.

Table of Contents

Preface xiii
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1676—Bacon's Rebellion
1703—Tobacco Depression
1719—Mississippi Bubble
1733—Molasses Act
1749—Colonial Hyperinflation and Currency Deflation
1750—Iron Act
1762—Colonial Recession
1764–1765—Sugar Act, Currency Act, and Stamp Act Boycotts
1772—Credit Crisis
1776—War Financing Crisis
1781—Currency Deflation and Inflation
1790—Debt Assumption, Debt Retirement, and Expanding the Economy
1792—Panic
1794—Whiskey Tax Rebellion
1796–1797—Panic
1800—Trade Interference by Barbary Coast Pirates
1807—Economic Embargo and Depression
1812—War of 1812
1816–1819—Economic Warfare and Dumping by Great Britain
1819—Panic
1820s—Cotton Recession
1825—British Panic and Its American Impact
1828—Tariff of Abominations
1833—Andrew Jackson Closes the Bank of the United States and Lowers Tariffs
1837—Panic and Six-Year Depression
1847—Panic
1848—Gold Rush Boom and Bust
1850—Whale Oil Shortage: The First Energy Crisis
1854—Panic
1854—Decline of American Canals
1857—Panic
1861—Civil War Economics, Shortages, and Inflation
1862—Union Blockade and Inflation
1869—Grant's Recession
1873—Panic and Global Depression
1877—Great National Railroad Strike
1880s—New England Energy Crisis
1882—Bessemer Process and the Labor Crisis
1882—Recession
1884—Panic
1890—British Panic
1893—Panic
1894—National Labor Unrest
1896—Gold Crisis
1899—Ohio Gas Industry Collapse
1901—Rich Man's Panic
1902—National Anthracite Coal Strike
1907—Panic
1910—Rubber Shortage and Price Explosion
1914–1918—War Shortages
1914—Crisis
1917—Boll Weevil Cotton Crisis
1918—Flu Pandemic
1919—National Steel Strike
1921—Automotive Recession
1921—British Rubber Embargo and Monopoly Control
1922—Peanut Import Crisis
1929—Wall Street Crash and Great Depression
1930s—Agricultural Depression and the Dust Bowl
1936–1939—Labor Uprisings
1937–1938—Recession
1940s—World War II Rationing and Shortages
1941—Rubber Crisis and Shortage
1943—Steel, Metal, and Alloy Shortage Crisis
1947—Economic Restructuring of America: Taft-Hartley Act
1947—Mont Pelerin: A Crisis in Economic Thought and Academia
1959—National Steel Strike
1965—Auto Import Challenge and the Fall of the American Auto Industry
1969—Technological Tire Crisis: Radial Tire Production Ends U.S. Rubber Dominance
1971—Wage and Price Controls
1973—Arab Oil Embargo Crisis
1974—Double-Digit Inflation
1975—Rapid Deindustrialization
1977—Natural Gas Shortage Crisis
1979—Nuclear Energy Crisis: Three Mile Island
1979—First Chrysler Bankruptcy
1980s—The Rust Belt
1981—Air Traffic Controllers' Strike
1982—Collapse of the Steel Industry
1982—Recession
1986—Savings and Loan Crisis
1987—Black Monday
1992—Hurricane Andrew
1992–1994—North American Free Trade Agreement
1994—Mexican Peso Crisis
1996—Decline of Southern Textile and Furbaniture Industries
1997—Asian Financial Crisis
1998—Russian Financial Crisis
2000—The Y2K Crisis
2000—Dot.Com Bubble
2001—September 11 Terrorist Attack and Recession
2005—Hurricane Katrina
2008—Banking and Subprime Mortgage Crisis
2009—Great Recession
2009—General Motors Bankruptcy
2010—Gulf Oil Spill
2012—European Sovereign Debt Crisis: U.S. Exports and Banking Impacts
2012—San Bernardino, California, Bankruptcy
2012—Hurricane Sandy
2013—Detroit Bankruptcy
Appendix: Primary Documents
1676—Bacon's Declaration in the Name of the People
Ca. 1750–Petition to Parliament on Repeal of the Iron Prohibition Act of 1750
1764—Boston Merchants' Appeals to Repeal the Sugar Act
1790—Hamilton's Report on Manufactures
1807—Embargo Act
1819—Transcript of McCulloch v. Maryland
1828—South Carolina's Exposition and Protest Against the Tariff of 1828 by John C. Calhoun (Anonymously)
1893—President Cleveland's Address on the Repeal of the Sherman Silver Act
1913—Federal Reserve Act Article One
1947—Outline of 29 U.S.C. 186 (Taft-Hartley Act Sec. 302)
1948—Article I of GATT Treaty
1971—Nixon's Address to the Nation Announcing Price Control Measures
1993—NAFTA Partial Text
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

[U]seful for students to be able to readily compare the events that precipitated major financial disasters. . . . The work does deliver cogent, succinct descriptions of the financial events that ensue in the wake of institutional and structural corruption or ineptitude throughout American history.” —Reference Reviews

From the Publisher