Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Today In History: Black Friday!

On this date in 1869, the Stock Market began a 20% nosedive (the equivalent of a 2,200 point drop in today's Dow) after an attempt by several investors, including President Grant's brother-in-law, to corner the gold market triggered a selloff of $4Mil in U.S. Treasury bullion in order to stabilize the precious metal's price.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am reminded of the attempt to corner the silver market in the 70's by the Hunt brothers, sons of an oil billionaire. When dad was informed by reporters that the kids had lost some $2 million in their stupid scheme, he replied along the lines of, "If they keep this up, they'll be broke in another 100 years."

Drang said...

It was all George W. Bush's fault...