The 100 Most

Important American

Financial Crises

An Encyclopedia of the

Lowest Points in American

Economic History

Quentin R. Skrabec Jr.

Q GREENWOOD

AN IMPRINT OF ABC-CLIO, LLC Santa Barbara, California • Denver, Colorado • Oxford, England Contents

Preface xiii

Acknowledgments xv Introduction xvii

1676—Bacon's Rebellion 1 1703—Tobacco Depression 4 1719—Mississippi Bubble 6 1733—Molasses Act 9 1749—Colonial and Currency Deflation 12 1750—IronAct 15 1762—Colonial Recession 17 1764-1765—Sugar Act, Currency Act, and Stamp Act Boycotts 19

1772—Credit Crisis 22 1776—War Financing Crisis 24 1781—Currency Deflation and Inflation 28 1790—Debt Assumption, Debt Retirement, and Expanding the Economy 31

1792—Panic 33 1794—Whiskey Tax Rebellion 37 1796-1797—Panic 40 1800—Trade Interference by Barbary Coast Pirates 43 1807—Economic Embargo and Depression 45 1812—War of 1812 48

vii viii | Contents

1816-1819—Economic Warfare and Dumping by Great Britain 51 1819—Panic 53 1820s—Cotton Recession 56 1825—British Panic and Its American Impact 58 1828—Tariff of Abominations 60 1833—Andrew Jackson Closes the Bank of the United States and Lowers Tariffs 63 1837—Panic and Six-Year Depression 66 1847—Panic 69 1848—Gold Rush Boom and Bust 71 1850—Whale Oil Shortage: The First 73 1854—Panic 76 1854—Deel ine of American Canals 78 1857—Panic 81 1861—Civil War Economics, Shortages, and Inflation 83 1862—Union Blockade and Inflation 85 1869—Grant's Recession 88 1873—Panic and Global Depression 90 1877—Great National Railroad Strike 93 1880s—New England Energy Crisis 96 1882—Bessemer Process and the Labor Crisis 98 1882—Recession 101 1884—Panic 103 1890—British Panic 105 1893—Panic 107 1894—National Labor Unrest 110 1896—Gold Crisis 113 1899—Ohio Gas Industry Collapse 115 1901—Rieh Man's Panic 117 Contents | ix

1902—National Anthracite Coal Strike 119 1907—Panic 122 1910—Rubber Shortage and Price Explosion 125 1914-1918—War Shortages 127 1914—Crisis 129 1917—Boll Weevil Cotton Crisis 132 1918—Flu Pandemic 134 1919—National Steel Strike 136 1921 —Automotive Recession 139 1921—British Rubber Embargo and Monopoly Control 142 1922—Peanut Import Crisis 144 1929—Wall Street Crash and Great Depression 146 1930s—Agricultural Depression and the Dust Bowl 150 1936-1939—Labor Uprisings 153 1937-1938—Recession 155 1940s—World War II Rationing and Shortages 158 1941 —Rubber Crisis and Shortage 161 1943—Steel, Metal, and Alloy Shortage Crisis 164 1947—Economic Restructuring of America: Taft-Hartley Act 166 1947—Mont Pelerin: A Crisis in Economic Thought and Academia 169 1959—National Steel Strike 171 1965—Auto Import Challenge and the Fall of the American Auto Industry 173 1969—Technological Tire Crisis: Radial Tire Production Ends U.S. Rubber Dominance 175 1971 —Wage and Price Controls 178 1973—Arab Oil Embargo Crisis 181 1974—Double-Digit Inflation 184 1975—Rapid Deindustrialization 186 x | Contents

1977—Natural Gas Shortage Crisis 189 1979—Nuclear Energy Crisis: Three Mile Island 191 1979—First Chrysler Bankruptcy 194 1980s—The Rust Belt 196 1981—Air Traffic Controllers' Strike 199 1982—Collapse of the Steel Industry 201 1982—Recession 203 1986— 206 1987— 209 1992—Hurricane Andrew 211 1992-1994—North American Free Trade Agreement 214 1994— 217 1996—Decline of Southern Textile and Furniture Industries 219 1997—Asian 221 1998—Russian Financial Crisis 224 2000—The Y2K Crisis 226 2000—Dot.Com Bubble 229 2001 —September 11 Terrorist Attack and Recession 231 2005—Hurricane Katrina 234 2008—Banking and 237

2009—Great Recession 239 2009—General Motors Bankruptcy 242 2010—GulfOil Spill 244 2012—European Sovereign : U.S. Exports and Banking Impacts 247 2012—San Bernardino, California, Bankruptcy 249 2012—Hurricane Sandy 251 2013—Detroit Bankruptcy 254 Contents | xi

Appendix: Primary Documents 1676—Bacon's Declaration in the Name of the People 257 Ca. 1750-Petition to Parliament on Repeal of the Iron Prohibition Act of1750 259 1764—-Boston Merchants' Appeals to Repeal the Sugar Act 260 1790—Hamilton's Report on Manufactures 262 1807—Embargo Act 269 1819—Transcript of McCulloch v. Maryland 272 1828—South Carolina's Exposition and Protest Against the Tariff of 1828 by John C. Calhoun (Anonymously) 282 1893—President Cleveland's Address on the Repeal of the Sherman Silver Act 290 1913—Federal Reserve Act Article One 293 1947—Outline of 29 U.S.C. 186 (Taft-Hartley Act See. 302) 294

1948—Article I of GATT Treaty 304 1971—Nixon's Address to the Nation Announcing Price Control Measures 311 1993—NAFTA Partial Text 316

Bibliography 317 Index 327