PANORAMIC VIEW OF ECONOMIC CRISES IN THE UNITED STATES 1819-1857: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

 Fethia Braik Hassiba Benbouali

Ms., University of Chlef, ALGERIA, e-mail: fethiadove@yahoo.fr/ f.braik@univhb-chlef.dz

 

Abstract

Eager to understand and to overcome the 2007 crisis, economists worldwide are struggling to provide better understanding of past panics. Researches revealed that the recent crisis and the Great Depression, the most severe ever witnessed by the United States, share some similarities. Most of the financial calamities started in the United States and spread internationally since their occurred in a world of interconnected trade. In narrative histories of US financial panics, little is found about similarities and differences of the panics. “All is forgotten until another storm comes”. Contemporary commentators and economic scholars do not seem to have the same identification of the events leading up to banking panics. The result lays in the number of panics they give when referring to US economic history. The most recent definition of banking panic is provided by Calomiris and Gorton. A banking panic may occur when depositors ask for immediate redemption for cash. My paper studies most panics, be them major or minor, from 1819 to 1857; with attributing more importance to the latter being focal points in the economic history of the country. My work is a combination of historiography, clinical survey, and analysis. It comprehends history of the panics, analysis of causes basically failures of companies and banks, and stamen of similarities and differences.