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["Don Bowen" <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>]

> http://edition.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/wayoflife/02/02/mf.economic.crisis.hist
> ory/index.html?iref=werecommend

Interesting article but quite shallow and flawed.  Read "Manias, Panics, and
Crashes: A History of Financial Crises" by Kindelberger for a more through
and accurate description of that and several crises.

The panic of 1873 was brought on by the failure of the Jay Cooke bank in
September of 1873, the result of many shocks.  The chain started with the
September 24, 1869 Black Friday when several banking houses failed over Jay
Gould's attempt to corner the market in gold and Grant's subsequent sale of
government gold.  Huge outpouring of government money for railroad expansion
had filled the coffers of the banking houses and gave Gould and Fisk the
idea they could corner the world's supply of gold.  The 1871 Chicago and
other fires lead to the failure of many insurance companies and banking
houses.  The 1872 outbreak of Equine Influenza caused further and severe
damage to an already weakened economy.  In 1873 silver demonetized making
money more difficult to get for many and the final nail was the failure of
the Cooke banking house as it tried to market millions in railroad bonds.

The panic lasted to at least 1879.

The bit about cattle left out an important part, English banking houses had
invested heavily in those werstern ranches and as the ranches fell so did
the banks.  The overbuilding of western railroads contributed significantly
to the crisis.

Don Bowen  KI6DIU
http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html