If there was one thing the Conservative Party cherished – and the British electorate admired – it was a reputation for economic competence. In the early 1990s, the opposition Labour Party was struggling to reinvent itself as an alternative government that could be trusted with the national piggy-bank, but that wasn’t easy… until Black Wednesday …
The big winners to emerge from World War II were two superpowers that – like mighty stags that feel compelled to do battle – locked horns for 40 years. The resulting Cold War was a fierce struggle to secure global dominance, with the USA and Soviet Union representing diametrically opposed political systems. One was the …
In 1945 Japan was a feudal monarchy that had suffered catastrophic defeat in World War II, but in fewer than 50 years this ruined nation would transform itself into a prosperous industrial democracy. Peasants became factory workers and the middle classes became white-collar workers – salary men – who were promised jobs for life in …
‘When America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold’ so it’s not really surprising that when America got the collywobbles at the beginning of the 1970s, the result was pneumonia on the London Stock Exchange – more than 70 per cent was wiped off share values in the worst bear market (market downturn) …
The high life of the Roaring Twenties came to a juddering halt on Black Tuesday October 29 1929 with the Wall Street Crash. Politicians who had welcomed in the ‘New Era’ of a continually rising stock market in an ever-expanding economy were shown up for the frauds they were. The New Era turned out to …
The Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression – 1929-1939 Read More »
The bank panic of 1907 demonstrates that crises in the banking system are nothing new. Once confidence is lost, panic spreads like a contagious disease. The Knickerbocker Trust Company was the third largest of the New York trust companies. The failure of such a prestigious financial institution inevitably caused the jitters to spread throughout the …
The Knickerbocker Trust Company and the New York Bank Panic – 1907 Read More »