Great Recession/Timelines

The 1980s

 * Financial deregulation ,.
 * The US Savings and Loans crisis - failure of 296 US "Savings and Loans" mortgage lenders

1990 - 2003

 * Progressive discount rate cuts by Federal Reserve Bank (from 7% in 1990 t0 0.75% in 2003.
 * The United States housing boom begins (prices rise by 8% between 2002 and 2003)

2003 - 2006

 * The Federal Reserve Bank makes a series of discount rate increases (from 0.75% to 6.25% in 2006).
 * The US housing boom continues (Average 2006 house price about  70% above 2000 level)

June

 * 25 Two of the Bear Stearns Bank's suffer losses from mortgage defaults.

August
The Northern Rock bank suffers a  bank run
 * 6 The American Home Mortgage Corporationgoes bankrupt.
 * 9 The French bank BNP Paribas freezes its  funds because it is unable to value their mortgage-backed assets.
 * 13 BBC's Robert Peston reports that the Northern Rock bank was seeking help from the Bank of England.

January

 * The US mortgage lender Countrywide is sold to Bank of America after its share price drops by 48%.

February

 * The British Northern Rock bank is "nationalised''.

March

 * The US Bear Stearns bank is rescued following losses relating to mortgage-related assets by its hedge funds.

April

 * Bank of England announces its Special Liquidity Scheme to allow banks to swap some of their illiquid assets for liquid Treasury Bills for up to three years.

June

 * US house prices fall to 20% below their 2006 peak.

August

 * The government-sponsored mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are rescued.

September

 * 7 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are nationalised.
 * 12 The Lehman Brothers investment bankgoes  bankrupt with losses of up to $160 billion to holders of its unsecured bonds prompting  a sudden loss of confidence in Money market funds and the onset of a credit crunch.

October

 * 3 The (modified)  $700 billion Paulson Plan (to purchase toxic assets) approved by Congress.
 * The Dutch Fortis and ABN Amro banks are "nationalised" .  The German Hypo Real Estate bank is rescued.
 * Iceland suffers an economic crisis.
 * 6 The US Wachovia Corporation is to be rescued by a takeover by the Wells Fargo bank.
 * 7 More European bank rescues.
 * 8 UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown announces a £500 billion  UK rescue plan to inject capital or  take equity in banks and to guarantee interbank lending).
 * A coordinated discount rate cut of half per cent by the central banks of the United States, Europe, China,  Britain, Canada, Sweden and Switzerland.
 * 10 LIBOR-OIS spreads reach  over 350 basis points (compared with  August 2007 rates of around 10 points).
 * 12 European Union  leaders  agree to adopt the UK rescue plan.
 * 14 US President Bush announces new plans to inject capital, take equity in banks and guarantee interbank lending.
 * 19 A German bank rescue package is  agreed.
 * 21 The US Federal Reserve Bank offers $540 billion loan support to money market mutual funds.
 * 25 Denmark's  Roskilde is bank to be taken over by its central bank.

November

 * 23 The US Citigroup bank is rescued (the US government makes $20 billion cash injection and guarantees against loss on $306 billion of illiquid assets
 * The US Federal Reserve Bank promises to buy up to $500 billion worth of mortgage-backed securities guarantee by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and up to $100billion worth of their direct debt.

December

 * 16 The US Federal Reserve Bank begins credit easing - open market operations raise the amount of base money   from $0.9 trillion to $2.2 trillion

January.

 * 19 UK Fiscal and monetary stimulus
 * 19 UK  Asset Protection Scheme protection against credit losses in return for a fee.

February.

 * 9  The US Financial Stability Plan - including stress tests and capital assistance for major banks, a $500-1000 billion Public-Private Investment Fund, consumer and business lending and housing support.
 * 13. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act(H.R. 1) ) - a $839 billion stimulus package including $288 billion in tax cuts and benefits, $224 billion in increased education and health spending, and a $275 billion for contracts, grants and loans.

March.

 * 3 The US Term Asset-backed Loan Facility .
 * The US Making Home Affordable Program

April.

 * G20 summit agrees to increase IMF funding to $750 billion; an increase in countries’ access to Special Drawing Rights and  $250 billion-worth of new global-trade guarantees.

May.

 * The European Central Bank cut its main policy interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point, to 1%
 * Bank of England  increases quantitative easing by raising  central-bank reserves from £75 billion ($113 billion) to £125 billion.

June.

 * The European Central Bank lent €3 billion ($4.2 billion) to Sweden’s central bank
 * US banks repay $68 billion in loans they had received under the Troubled Asset Relief Programme (including PMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and American Express).
 * 27 The European Central Bank provides a €442 billion to the euro area’s banking system through an offer of unlimited one-year funds at 1% interest.

October.

 * The Reserve Bank of Australia raised its main interest rate by 25 basis points, to 3.25%,

December.

 * 9 The UKs Fiscal Consolidation Plan
 * Greece’s credit rating was downgraded to BBB+, with a negative outlook, by Fitch

2010
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Europe

 * The European Central Bank cuts MRO rate to 2%
 * The UK announces a fiscal stimulus (including a temporary reduction of the rate of value-added tax from 17.5% to 15%,  a bringing forward of £3 billion of capital investment, and a range of minor tax reductions). The Bank of England starts quantitative easing  and asset protection . The Bank of England cuts discount  rate from 2% to 1.5% .  UK banks  arelent £185 bn under the Special Liquidity Scheme
 * Germany introduces a major fiscal stimulus package

World

 * Oil price rises - to over $70 per barrel

United States

 * 10 banks repay Treasury loans' - received under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The mark to market accounting rule is eased for inactive markets (to what an asset could fetch in an "orderly" transaction

Europe

 * The ECB discount rate is cut to 1 percent - the interest rate on the main refinancing operations of the Eurosystem be decreased by 25 basis points to 1.00%, from 13/05/09.   ECB quantitative easing starts - with plans to buy €60bn worth of bonds.   ECB balance sheet total reaches €2,000 billion.
 * Ireland's supplementary budget - a number of tax increases and public expenditure cuts designed to reduce the deficit to 10.75 per cent of GDP for 2009.
 * The Bank of England discount rate is to reduced to0.5% and announces £75 billion asset purchase under its Asset Purchase Scheme  The Bank of England's balance sheet total reaches £227 billion

Asia

 * The Bank of Japan's balance sheet total reaches Y110,000 billion.