Pyramid Comment

This journal takes an alternative view on current affairs and other subjects. The approach is likely to be contentious and is arguably speculative. The content of any article is also a reminder of the status of those affairs at that date. All comments have been disabled. Any and all unsolicited or unauthorised links are absolutely disavowed.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Banking Panic - The Plan (Prelude)

Banking Panic - The Plan (1)
Banking Panic - The Plan (2)
Banking Panic - The Plan (3)
Banking Panic - The Plan (4)
Banking Panic - The Plan (5)
Banking Panic - The Plan (6)
Banking Panic - The Plan (7)
Banking Panic - The Plan (8)
Banking Panic - The Plan (9)
Banking Panic - The Plan (10)
Banking Panic - The Plan (Nearly There)
Banking Panic - The Plan (Arrival)
Banking Panic - The Plan (The Next Phase)
Banking Panic - The Plan (11)
Banking Panic - The Plan (12)
Banking Panic - The Plan (13)
Banking Panic - The Plan (Exit)
Banking Panic - The Plan (1st Encore)
Banking Panic - The Plan (2nd Encore)
Banking Panic - The Plan (3rd Encore)
Banking Panic - The Circus

And much more...

An Entrance to Heaven or Hell?


The Start of the Crisis


The first examples of banking panic (financial crises) happened a long time before the turn of the 20th century:

1720
John Law And The Mississipi Scheme, South Sea Bubble (see also Economic Bubble)

European and US investors and bankers were involved, so clearly global problems are nothing new. And, as always, based on greed.

1866
Overend & Guerney

The Bank of England became the "lender of last resort" for banks in trouble. Between 1814 and 1914 the United States lived through a total of 13 banking panics. The year of 1907 was the worst and came about through the Knickerbocker Trust Company. Greed took control over judgement, with speculation being the cause.

The earthquake in San Francisco put a huge strain on the banking and insurance businesses. Lloyd's of London had insured San Francisco. As a consequence, the Bank of England more or less doubled interest rates. The US moved into recession pushing down the stockmarket and finishing off the Knickerbocker Trust.

The queues of customers wanted their cash: $8m in 2hrs (Oct 1907). The bank is solvent people were told and the queue remained. Unmoved by these assurances.

  • "Stacks of green currency, bound into thousand dollar lots, were piled on the counters behind the tellers. One by one these stacks were broached and they dwindled rapidly. Clerks went to the vaults from time to time with arms full of notes, piled up like bundles of kindling wood".
Morgan, Grenfell & Co

Organised lines of credit and purchased shares in sound, though distressed, companies and engineered banking mergers to protect the system.


  • "A man I don't trust could not get money from me on all the bonds in Christendom".
The American public's distrust of financial or oligarchic corporations resulted in the anti-monopoly (trust busting) laws. The US also developed the Federal Reserve System in 1913. Before this, there was no central bank with "lender of last resort" status.


Federal Reserve - Bank of England
Dirty Secrets of the Temple
Northern Rock: 100 years onward

Wall Street Crash


24th October 1929,
Black Thursday


  • "... there has been a little distress selling on the Stock Exchange...due to a technical condition of the market".
  • "... susceptible to betterment".
J.P. Morgan and Co

Banking Panic - The Plan (1)
Banking Panic - The Plan (2)
Banking Panic - The Plan (3)
Banking Panic - The Plan (4)
Banking Panic - The Plan (5)
Banking Panic - The Plan (6)
Banking Panic - The Plan (7)
Banking Panic - The Plan (8)
Banking Panic - The Plan (9)
Banking Panic - The Plan (10)
Banking Panic - The Plan (Nearly There)
Banking Panic - The Plan (Arrival)
Banking Panic - The Plan (The Next Phase)
Banking Panic - The Plan (11)
Banking Panic - The Plan (12)
Banking Panic - The Plan (13)
Banking Panic - The Plan (Exit)
Banking Panic - The Plan (1st Encore)
Banking Panic - The Plan (2nd Encore)
Banking Panic - The Plan (3rd Encore)
Banking Panic - The Circus