American financial institutions faced the worst credit crisis since the Great Depression. Global stock markets lost $3.1 trillion in four days. American International Group (AIG), the world's biggest insurance company and a leader in the $62 trillion credit-default swap market, was nearly bankrupted. The US Federal Reserve loaned AIG $85 billion at 11% interest and took control of the company, which was founded in China in 1919 and driven out thirty years later by Mao. AIG was replaced in the Dow Jones Industrial Average by Kraft, the makers of Cheez Whiz. Central banks poured hundreds of billions of dollars into the market, and the Securities and Exchange Commission temporarily banned the short-selling of 799 financial-institution stocks.
Excerpt from "Harper's Weekly", September 23, 2008 ("Sam Stark")
Wikipedia article on "FINANCIAL CRISIS OF 2007-2008":
Grateful thanks to Sam Stark, Harper's Weekly and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
No comments:
Post a Comment