Sayings History Repeats

S&P's US credit rating downgrade: We've been here before, not 1929, but 1931...

It is certainly a blow to President Obama’s reputation that Standard & Poor’s has downgraded the U.S.’s AAA rating.

He fumbled the Congressional politics of this, as well as his deficit spending.

But the news has been factored in and discounted already. It will fray nerves maybe, but for the rest of us, interbank deals will go on using U.S. Treasury Bonds, even if the U.S. pays some more. Dented prestige is not fatal, so calm down, dear.

Is there really something to worry about in the financial maelstrom this weekend?

Let us recall that it took two years for the Wall Street Crash of 1929 to become the Great Depression.

After the initial crash in October, the market rallied for several months, before embarking on an even more shattering decline in the spring of 1930.

The Depression became global in 1931 when the French, fearing that the Germans were planning to expand their ever closer union with Austria, pulled their funds out of the Austrian Credit-Anstalt, which started a run on that bank in the May.

In fact, Credit-Anstalt was stuffed with bad loans, but it was also regarded as too big to fail. Austria guaranteed the bank, which made it a sovereign debt crisis, and, to keep going, Credit-Anstalt went to the Bank for International Settlements, which offered too small a loan, too late. This is when the lender of last resort stepped in. Partly to rebuke the French for playing politics with money,

Governor Montagu Norman of the Bank of England extended a 50million Austrian Schilling line of credit, rolled over weekly until the August when the bank had to call it in.

Suddenly it was clear that the Bank of England could no longer be the lender of last resort, and with no one else willing, the gold standard system began to crack up.

Greentown Grapevine: Historical Society Honors

&Nbsp;                                                                                                                   Eastern’s 7th grade students participated in the annual project, “History Close to Home: A Living Biography” in which they interviewed a senior citizen of their choice.  Social studies teacher, Brad Shrock, stated, “Our history lives in our parents, grandparents, friends and acquaintances, and beyond, and it is our responsibility to demonstrate personal involvement with an age group that has so much to give.  The sayings, ‘history repeats itself’ and ‘history is alive,’ mean very little in print, but when we are exposed to living examples we can more easily see a connection and make appropriate adjustments for the future.  People, faces, names and places make our history meaningful.” special recognition for their quality and local interest.  Winners were Marissa Middleton, who interviewed her grandmother, Barbara Middleton; Branden Thomas, who interviewed a former teacher, Paul Nicholson; Braden Swisher, who  interviewed his grandmother, Jolene Rule; and  Zach Johnson, who interviewed his grandmother, Carolyn Johnson.

History of the Peloponnesian War

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire

History of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire

A history of the modern Middle East