“On Oct. 17, 1907, panic began to spread on Wall Street after two men tried to corner the copper market. In the months preceding the panic, the stock market was shaky at best; banks and securities firms were contending with major liquidity problems. By mid-October, Wall Street was paralyzed; for days, there were runs on several large banks. Millions of dollars were withdrawn, and banks closed their doors."
Sound familiar? The above passage is from an article on the NPRs website titled "Lesson's From Wall Street's Panic of 1907." 101 years later, the US economy finds itself in an eerily similar situation, and following today's lunchtime plunge in the Dow, the index is now closing in on 1907 to be on pace for the index's worst year ever.
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John Mauldin was making the analogy to the Panic of 1907 in August of last year. That is when the credit crisis started.
Posted by: DaveinHackensack | November 15, 2008 at 12:18 AM