The Greatest Knockouts of Finance

Let’s face it, from the Silent Generation to Generation Z, we’ve seen some of the biggest knockouts of financial history. Remember watching the boxing match, Super Fight II, between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frasier? It was an exciting time and an exciting bout. Although when the stock markets collapsed, we as Americans didn’t feel that same excitement. We felt as if we were the ones being knocked on our behinds and stumbling with wobbly knees. We took a lot of hits through the years and it feels like this is a never ending fight that we have to battle. But somehow we’ve seemed to bounce back and get on our feet again. Through all the chaos of the years I looked into what we’ve gone through since the Great Depression. We’ve had over 14 Recessions since the Great Depression. Most were not large scale recessions and only lasted for one year or less but it made a major impact on our economy. Check out some of our economies greatest bouts.

1. The Great Depression: The year of 1929 and 1930 was the biggest stock market crash, banking crash and largest economic collapse America has endured. Stock markets crashed worldwide and the United States remained in a depression until World War II.

2. Recession of 1937-1938: This was only considered minor compared to the Great Depression but with a tight fiscal policy, monetary policy and declining profits of businesses, this led to a reduction in business investment and the GDP declined to -18.2%.

3. Recession of 1973-1975: Unemployment rate was at the highest it’s been since the Recession of 1937-1938. In 1975 unemployment was at an all-time high of 9.0%! This was due to the quadrupling of oil prices and high government spending because of the Vietnam War. We had the Oil Crisis of 1973 and the stock market crash in 1973-1974.

4. Recession of the Early 2000’s: The decade of growth was brought to an end. The collapse of the dot-com bubble and the unforgettable and tragic September 11th attack had shook our people and our economy.

5. The Great Recession: The housing bubble collapsed, oil and food prices soared, and the falling housing market led to the failure of the largest financial institutions in the United States: Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, and the Automobile Industry. The stock market collapsed and with all of this, the government responded with a $700 billion bank bailout and $787 billion fiscal stimulus package.

As I sat writing this it brought back memories of those times. I felt some of the same emotions that I felt when I was younger. I can remember sitting watching T.V. and Breaking News comes on with a Financial Crisis! Needless to say, we’ve been able to find a way to get back on our feet after being knocked around. Every time you get knocked down you must get back up. Just as the stock markets, when they go down, they go up. It’s a cycle that will continue throughout the years and generation to generation. What we can do is help you prepare for those fights, show you how to methodically maneuver around the punches and end up the victor like Muhammad Ali.