On the evening of January 18, the

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

Parliament agreed to a financial package worth 100 billion Danish kroner (17.6 billion

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

). In response, markets panicked yet again. On January 22, the editorial board of ''

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...

'' wrote that the four largest U.S. banks "have lost half of their value since January 2." The two-month period from January 1-February 27 represented the worst start to a year in the history of the

S&P 500 The Standard and Poor's 500, or simply the S&P 500, is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices. As of D ...

with a drop in value of 18.62%. By March 2, the

Dow Jones Industrial Average The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), Dow Jones, or simply the Dow (), is a stock market index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. The DJIA is one of the oldest and most commonly followed equity inde ...

Index had dropped more than 50% from its October 2007 peak. The decline has been compared to that of the 1929 Great Depression, which was 53% between September 1929 and March 1931. On March 6, the Bank of England announced up to 150 billion pounds of

quantitative easing Quantitative easing (QE) is a monetary policy action whereby a central bank purchases predetermined amounts of government bonds or other financial assets in order to stimulate economic activity. Quantitative easing is a novel form of monetary pol ...

, increasing the risk of inflation. In March 2009, Blackstone Group CEO

Stephen Schwarzman Stephen Allen Schwarzman (born February 14, 1947) is an American billionaire businessman. He is the chairman and CEO of The Blackstone Group, a global private equity firm he established in 1985 with Peter G. Peterson, former chairman and CEO of ...

said that up to 45% of global wealth had been destroyed by the global financial crisis. By March 9, 2009, the Dow had fallen to 6440, a percentage decline exceeding the pace of the market's fall during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

and a level which the index had last seen in 1996. On March 10, 2009, a countertrend bear market rally began, taking the Dow up to 8500 by May 6, 2009. Financial stocks were up more than 150% during this rally. By May 9, financial stocks had rallied more than 150% in just over two months. On June 22 the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

projected that the global production for 2009 would fall by 2.9%, the first decline since the second world war.World Banks projection of June 22
/ref>

References

{{Financial crises 2000s economic history Great Recession

See also

References