Word: 1930s
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Every now and then, the drastic end of flush economic times happens to coincide with the natural end of a conservative political era. Such was the case in the 1930s - coming after three straight conservative presidencies, a period of whizbang technological progress (electrification, radio, aviation) and a culture of bon temps rouler - and such is the case...
What about protectionism? We've seen it in the past. We saw it in the 1930s. When I spoke to the U.S. Congress [on March 4], I said that protectionism in the end protects no one, because if trade falls, then more businesses collapse and more jobs go. You know, I come from the town where Adam Smith was born. Trade is the engine of so much of the growth we've had in the last few years. I believe protectionism is the road to ruin...
...some finance experts think that by focusing the discussion on who pays for ratings, a much larger issue is missed entirely. Since the 1930s, regulators themselves have relied on the judgment of private ratings agencies - thus giving the companies exalted status and immunizing them from competition that might otherwise keep them honest. It started with bank regulators in 1936, and over the years different parts of the government, overseeing everything from insurance companies to money market mutual funds, have turned to the ratings agencies for guidance. (Vote for the 2009 TIME 100 Finalists...
...most accounts, some $2 trillion taxpayer dollars at stake in the salvage programs in place or being considered, to save the national economy. The results of the failure of those plans are unimaginable. Almost no one living in America now was an adult during the early 1930s. It is impossible to imagine how 13% or 14% unemployment would affect the modern economy, just as there is no way to suss out what a 50% drop in housing prices from the 2006 peaks would do. Some economists believe that these problems will drive the nation into a decade of economic stagnation...
Poor's Publishing (later Standard & Poor's) started selling its bond ratings to investors in 1916; Fitch followed suit in 1924. In the 1930s, federal regulators began using these private ratings to evaluate the safety of banks' holdings, among other things, but the importance of the agencies waned following World War II as bond defaults became rare. The economic turbulence of the 1970s raised the industry's profile again. In 1975, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) deemed certain firms "nationally recognized statistical ratings organizations"--making a sign-off from a ratings agency a necessity for anyone selling debt...