2000 |
| 10-Jan |
AOL acquires Time Warner |
| 10-Mar |
Nasdaq peaks at 5,132 marketing the height of the Tech Bubble |
| 3-Apr |
Microsoft declared a monopoly in Federal Court |
| 18-May |
Boo.com declares bankruptcy |
| 6-Nov |
Pets.com declares bankruptcy |
| 7-Nov |
Voters go to the polls in the historically close election of 2000 |
| 12-Dec |
Supreme Court rules in Bush v. Gore, resulting in Bush's victory |
2001 |
| 3-Jan |
Federal Reserve unexpectedly cuts key interest rates for the first time since 1998 |
| 31-Mar |
1Q GDP report shows first decline in GDP since 1991 |
| 11-Sep |
Terrorist attacks cause financial market freefall |
| 7-Oct |
U.S. led forces invade Afghanistan |
| 22-Oct |
Enron acknowledges SEC investigation into its accounting practices |
| 15-Nov |
Oil falls to $17.45 a barrel, the low point for the decade |
| 2-Dec |
Enron declares bankruptcy |
2002 |
| 3-Jun |
Dennis Kozlowski resigns as CEO of Tyco amidst a tax and accounting scandal |
| 26-Jun |
SEC launches investigation into WorldCom's accounting practices |
| 12-Jul |
WorldCom declares bankruptcy |
| 10-Oct |
S&P 500 bottoms at 768.63, 51% below its all-time high set in 2000 |
2003 |
| 20-Mar |
U.S. Led forces invade Iraq |
2004 |
| 30-Jun |
Federal Reserve raise key interest rate |
| 1-Oct |
Oil officially closes above $50/barrel |
| 2-Nov |
President George W. Bush wins reelection, defeating Senator John Kerry |
2005 |
| 29-Aug |
Hurricane Katrina makes landfall; oil and gasoline prices skyrocket |
| 17-Oct |
Refco declares bankruptcy |
2006 |
| 1-Feb |
Ben Bernanke takes over as Chairman of the Federal Reserve |
2007 |
| 27-Feb |
Dow Jones Industrial Average drops 400 points (largest drop since 9/11/2001) after HSBC announces significant write-downs on its sub-prime mortgage holdings |
| 2-Apr |
Sub-prime mortgage giant, New Century, files for bankruptcy |
| 16-Jul |
Bear Sterns announces that two sub-prime mortgage hedge funds had collapsed |
| 10-Aug |
Central banks around the world inject liquidity in response to the financial crisis |
| 16-Aug |
Countrywide takes out an emergency $11 billion loan |
| 11-Oct |
S&P 500 peaks at 1,576.09 |
| 7-Nov |
New York District Attorney, Andrew Cuomo, announces investigation into Washington Mutual's practices |
2008 |
| 3-Jan |
Crude oil trades above $100/barrel for the first time |
| 11-Jan |
Bank of America purchases Countrywide Financial |
| 7-Feb |
Auction Rate Security (ARS) crisis begins |
| 16-Mar |
Bear Sterns is purchased by J.P. Morgan in a deal orchestrated by the Federal Reserve to avoid Bear's bankruptcy |
| 11-Jul |
IndyMac is seized by the FDIC |
| 7-Sep |
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are placed in conservatorship by the Federal Government |
| 14-Sep |
Bank of America purchases a distressed Merrill Lynch |
| 15-Sep |
Lehman Brothers declares bankruptcy |
| 17-Sep |
Federal Reserve lends AIG $85 billion to avoid bankruptcy |
| 25-Sep |
Washington Mutual is seized by FDIC |
| 29-Sep |
Dow Jones Industrial Average drop 777 points, the largest decline in its history as the House votes down the Economic Stabilization Act |
| 3-Oct |
Wells Fargo and distressed Wachovia announce a merger |
| 3-Oct |
House passes Economic Stabilization Act and President Bush signs it into law |
| 9-Oct |
Icelandic banking system and currency collapses |
| 13-Oct |
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), HBOS, and Lloyds are rescued by British government |
| 14-Oct |
U.S. Treasury uses TARP to purchase equity in nine of the nation's largest banks |
| 4-Nov |
Senator Barack Obama is elected President of the United States, defeating Senator John McCain and becoming the nation's first African-American President |
| 23-Nov |
Citigroup receives an additional $20 billion from U.S. Treasury |
| 11-Dec |
FBI arrests Bernie Madoff for an alleged $50 billion ponzi scheme |
| 19-Dec |
President Bush announces that U.S. Treasury will provide a bridge-loan to GM and Chrysler |
2009 |
| 16-Jan |
Bank of America receives an additional $20 billion from U.S. Treasury |
| 17-Feb |
President Obama signs 2009 Stimulus Bill |
| 9-Mar |
S&P 500 bottoms at 666.79, a 12-year low and 58% below its 2007 peak, the largest drop since the Great Depression |
| 30-Apr |
Chrysler files for bankruptcy and announces alliance with Fiat |
| 7-May |
Federal Reserve releases the findings of its "stress tests" on bank capital showing better than expected results |
| 1-Jun |
GM files for bankruptcy |
| 10-Jun |
U.S. Treasury accepts first repayments from 10 banks in the TARP program |
| 1-Nov |
CIT group declares bankruptcy |
| 25-Nov |
Dubai World announces need to restructure debt or risk default |
| 31-Dec |
S&P 500 finishes 2009 with a 23.5% gain, up 71.8% from the March low |
