From the time Congress established the Bank of North America in 1781 up to the Great Depression, America's financial system lasted no more than about 20 to 30 years without crashing. FDR's New Deal, including passage of the Glass-Steagall Act, broke that pattern -- until Ronald Reagan came into office, at which time the 20 year pattern returned.
A coincidence? I think not.
The timeline is expanded below the orange glob. What this timeline proves to me is that it's time to reinstate Glass-Steagall along with more and stronger new, New Deal programs.
A disclaimer - the history site I used for this timeline seems a wee bit pro-tea-party. Not me. But post-2008 entries on that site are dodgy that way. I decided to end my timeline here with the global financial crash of 2007-2008.
It's a bit long, so I had to edit out some events I wanted to include (like the first American bank roberry in 1831, the first succesful train robbery by Jesse James in 1873, that type of thing...) If they're included, three words sum up America's financial history: Crash, Bang, Boom!
May 26, 1781 - The Bank of North America is incorporated in Philadelphia by an act of Congress to help stabilize the issuance of paper currency. It was capitalized in 1781 with $400,000.
July 6, 1785 - The United States adopts a decimal coinage system, with the dollar overwhelmingly selected as the monetary unit, the first time any nation has done so.
March 3, 1791 - The United States Congress passes a resolution to establish the U.S. Mint, which is created one year later when the Coinage Act is passed on April 2.
May 17, 1792 - The beginnings of the New York Stock Exchange is established with the signing of the Buttonwood agreement.
April 10, 1816 - Second Bank of the United States is chartered, five years after the expiration of the 1st Bank of the United States.
January 2, 1819 - The first financial crises in the United States, the Panic of 1819, occurs, leading to foreclosures, bank failures, and unemployment. Several causes have been identified, including the heavy amount of borrowing by the government to finance the War of 1812, as well as the tightening of credit by the Second Bank of the U.S. in response to risky lending practices by wildcat banks in the west.
July 11, 1836 - The Specie Act is issued by executive order of President Andrew Jackson, requiring payment for government lands to be in gold and silver. The Act was a reaction to the growing concerns about excessive speculations of land taken by Indian removal. The sale of public lands increased fivefold between 1834 and 1836. Speculators paid for these purchases with depreciating paper money. This act would lead to the failure of the economy of land speculation and the Panic of 1837.
May 10, 1837 - The global economic crises known as the Panic of 1837 begins with the failure of New York City banks and unemployment which would reach record levels.
August 16, 1841 - President Tyler vetoes the bill re-establishing the Second Bank of the United States, causing an angry riot among Whig party members on White House grounds. It was the most violent demonstration on those grounds in U.S. history.
September 24, 1869 - Prompted by an attempt to corner the gold market, the financial Black Friday occurs in New York City.
September 18, 1873 - An economic depression begins when the New York stock market crashes, setting off a financial panic that caused bank failures. The impact of "The Long Depression" would continue for five years.
January 14, 1875 - The Specie Payment Resumption Act restored the nation to the gold standard through the redemption of previously unbacked United States Notes and reversed inflationary government policies promoted directly after the American Civil War.
May 5, 1893 - The New York Stock Exchange collapses, starting the financial panic of 1893. It would lead to a four year period of depression.
March 14, 1900 - The Gold Standard Act is ratified, placing the United States currency on the gold standard.
March 13, 1907 - Another financial crises occurs in the business community with the beginning of the Financial Panic and Depression of 1907.
December 23, 1913 - A major reform of the American financial and banking system occurs with the authorization by the U.S. Congress for the establishment of the Federal Reserve System.
July 17, 1916 - Financial aid to farmers is awarded by the passage of the Rural Credits Act. These payments would be further strengthened with the passage of a second bill, the Warehouse Act, on August 11.
October 29, 1929 - Postwar prosperity ends in the 1929 Stock Market crash. The plummeting stock prices led to losses between 1929 and 1931 of an estimated $50 billion and started the worst American depression in the nation's history.
January 22, 1932 - The Reconstruction Finance Corporation is established to stimulate banking and business. Unemployment in 1932 reached twelve million workers.
March 9 - June 16, 1933 - The New Deal social and economic programs are passed by the United States Congress in a special one hundred day session to address depression era economics. The gold standard was dropped on April 19 and ratified during the time of this session on June 5. Canada also drops using the gold standard.
Glass-Steagall Banking Act of 1933 (enacted June 16, 1933) established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and imposed various other banking reforms including separation of commercial and investment banking.
June 6, 1934 - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is established with the signing of the Securities Exchange Act into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
August 14, 1935 - The Social Security Act is passed by Congress as part of the New Deal legislation and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It would begin payouts to retirees within two years. Workers began contributing into the system during the same year, at a rate of 2% of the first $3,000 in earnings, half paid by the employee and half paid by the employer.
June 25, 1938 - The National Minimum Wage is signed into law within the federal legislation known as the Fair Labor Standards Act. It established a minimum wage of $0.25 at the time, as well as time and one half for overtime and the prohibition of most employment for minors.
June 22, 1944 - The G.I. Bill of Rights is signed into law, providing benefits to veterans.
1956 - The Bank Holding Company Act is passed to regulate the actions of bank holding companies. The original law (subsequently amended), specified that the Federal Reserve Board of Governors must approve the establishment of a bank holding company, and prohibited bank holding companies headquartered in one state from acquiring a bank in another state.
July 1, 1966 - Medicare, the government medical program for citizens over the age of 65, begins.
October 6, 1979 - The Federal Reserve system changes its monetary policy goals from interest rate based to a money supply target orientation.
November 1, 1979 - The Chrysler Bailout is approved by the federal government. A $1.5 billion loan-guarantee plan is floated to assist the third largest car maker in the United States.
July 29, 1981 - Tax cut legislation proposed by President Ronald Reagan, the largest in history, is passed by both houses of the U.S. Congress. It would reduce taxes by $750 billion over the next five years.
November 5, 1982 - The highest unemployment rate since 1940 is recorded at 10.4%. By the end of November, over eleven million people would be unemployed.
April 20, 1983 - President Reagan signs legislation meant to rescue the Social Security System from bankruptcy.
October 19, 1987 - The stock market crash known as Black Monday occurs on the New York Stock Exchange, recording a record 22.6% drop in one day. Stock markets around the world would mirror the crash with drops of their own.
August 9, 1989 - The Savings and Loan Bailout is approved by Congress and signed into law by President George Herbert Walker Bush. The total cost of the bill would approach $400 billion over thirty years to close and merge insolvent Savings and Loans.
July 29, 1991 - Bank of Credit and Commerce International is indicted in New York for the largest bank fraud in history.
November 20, 1993 - The Senate Ethics Committee censures California Senator Alan Cranston for his participation with Charles Keating in the Savings and Loan scandal. The scandal had begun in the 1980s due to a wave of mismanagement, failed speculation, and fraud within the industry. By the end of this crisis, almost 800 savings and loans institutions responsible for real estate, automotive, personal and business loans in the United States had failed. It would eventually cost the U.S. government between $125-$150 billion to bail out the failed institutions.
The Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act amended the laws governing federally chartered banks in order to restore competitiveness affected by recently relaxed laws governing state-chartered banks. The goal was the return to a balance between the benefits of a state bank charter versus a federal bank charter. Among other notable changes, the Act stipulated that a federally chartered bank wishing to expand must first undergo a review of its Community Reinvestment Act compliance
December 5, 1996 - A speech by the Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan suggests that irrational exuberance may be causing the extraordinary runup of stock prices.
January 1, 1999 - The Euro currency is introduced as a competitive tool to stem the power of the dollar and maximize the economic power of the European Union nations.
March 29, 1999 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 10,000 for the first time.
November 12, 1999 - The Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act (GLBA), also known as the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 and commonly pronounced ″glibba″, repeals part of the Glass–Steagall Act of 1933, enabling commercial banks, investment banks, securities firms, and insurance companies to consolidate.
“What we are creating now is a group of institutions which are too big to fail...Taxpayers are going to be called upon to cure the failures that we are creating tonight, and its going to cost a lot of money, and its coming.” ~ John Dingell, D-MI
2007 - 2008 Global Financial Crisis
October 3, 2008 - The United States Congress passes legislation, signed by President Bush, for a $700 billion bailout, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, giving the Treasury Department authority to assist distressed Wall Street and banking businesses of the United States due to the housing, banking, and subprime mortgage crises caused by excessive greed and speculation among Wall Street firms.