30 | Crain’s New York Business | June 28, 2010

Up and down and all around Wall Street A timeline by Aaron Elstein and Emily Laermer

RONALD REAGAN GEORGE H.W. BUSH BILL CLINTON

ED KOCH DAVID DINKINS

MARIO CUOMO

� Mikhail Gorbachev isnamed generalsecretary of theCommunist Partyin the U.S.S.R.

� Two Mafiabosses are shotdead in front of amidtown steak-house, makingthe hit’s organizer,John Gotti, theleader of theGambino organ-ized crime family.

� Bear Stearnsgoes public. OtherWall Street part-nerships follow.

� ContinentalAirlines files forChapter 11 bank-ruptcy protection.

� New Coke isintroduced andwithdrawn.

�Madonna’s“Like a Virgin” hitsNo. 1.

� Danny Meyeropens UnionSquare Cafe.

� The first dot-comdomain name,Symbolics.com,appears on theInternet.

� The LondonInterBankOffered Rate,or Libor, islaunched.

� Salomon andFirst Bostonemerge as lead-ers in sales of anew product:mortgage-backedsecurities.

� Sprint comesto NYC, endingAT&T’s long-dis-tance monopoly.

� DesignerPerry Ellis diesfrom AIDS.

�Mary-Kateand AshleyOlsen are bornin California. Thetwins, now basedin Manhattan,today are worthan estimated$100 million.

� The Mets winthe World Series.

� General Elec-tric buys NBCfrom RCA for$6.4 billion.

� SpeculatorIvan Boeskypleads guilty toinsider tradingand agrees to a$100 million fine.

� J.C. Penneyleaves NYC after75 years, taking3,200 corporatejobs with it.

� The NYPDplans to addalmost 2,000officers, ending adozen years ofpolice-force cuts.

� Barry Dillerand Rupert Mur-doch debut Mur-doch’s Fox Net-work in primetime with ashow whose ani-mated segmentsspawn a 1989spinoff calledThe Simpsons.

� The Giantswin the SuperBowl.

� Artist Andy Warhol dies fol-lowing routinegall-bladder sur-gery at New YorkHospital-CornellMedical Center.

� The CrazyEddie appliancechain (“Hisprices areinsaaane”) col-lapses whenaccounting fraudis uncovered.

� KohlbergKravis &Roberts battlesto acquire RJRNabisco for $25billion, in whatwas then thebiggest leveragedbuyout ever.

�� The Phantomof the Operaopens on Broad-way. It hasn’tclosed yet.

� Newark Air-port’s 855,000-square-foot Ter-minal C, longknown as the“ghost terminal”because of itsconstructiondelays, finallyopens for busi-ness.

� Donald Trumppublishes The Artof the Deal.

� A riot eruptsin TompkinsSquare Parkwhen police tryto enforce a newcurfew for thegentrifying EastVillage spot.

�With primeoffice realestate in Tokyorenting for$93,000 persquare foot, Mit-subishi EstateCo. buys 51% ofRockefeller Cen-ter for $846 mil-lion in cash.

� Joey Butta-fuoco begins anaffair with under-age Amy Fisher.

� The ConsumerNews and Busi-ness Channellaunches. Itbecomes better-known as CNBC.

� Real estatemoguls Harryand LeonaHelmsley areconvicted of taxevasion. Harry istoo weak toappear in court;his wife receivesthe $7 millionfine and fouryears in prison.

� Spike Lee’sDo The RightThing premieres.

� Iraq occupiesKuwait.

� Germanyreunifies.

� Time Inc. andWarner Commu-nications merge.

� Financial-information firmBloomberg LPlaunches a newsservices division.

� Yankees owner GeorgeSteinbrenner isordered to stepaside as generalpartner after pay-ing a gambler$40,000 to findembarrassinginformationabout outfielderDave Winfield.

� Arson at theHappylandSocial Club inthe Bronx kills87 people.

� Junk bondking MichaelMilken pleadsguilty to securi-ties fraud. He isfined $600 mil-lion and sen-tenced to 10years in prison.

� Subway faresrise above $1 forthe first time.

� Following afailed coup inthe U.S.S.R., theSoviet Union van-ishes from themap at year’s end.

�MichaelMilken’s DrexelBurnham Lambertcollapses. It’s thebiggest failure ofa Wall Street firmever—until 2008.

� British tycoonRobert Maxwellagrees to buy theDaily News fromTribune Co., thenmysteriously fallsoff his yacht anddrowns. Develop-er Mort Zucker-man acquires thepaper in 1993.

� Salomonerupts in scandalwhen a trader iscaught submittingfalse bids to U.S.government debtauctions. Theinvestment bankis fined $290 mil-lion, CEO JohnGutfreund is oust-ed and WarrenBuffett takes con-trol as chairman.The firm is lateracquired bySandy Weill’s Trav-elers Group.

� DonaldTrump’s realestate firm filesfor bankruptcy.

� Eddie Antar,who had fled toIsrael followingthe demise ofCrazy Eddie, isarrested.A yearlater, he is foundguilty of fraud.

�Macy’s,crushed by itsdebt from a 1986LBO, files forbankruptcy.

� Seinfeld startsto turn into a popculture phenom.

� A federal actsets specific goalsfor Fannie Maeand Freddie Macto support hous-ing in low-income/underserved areas.

� Quentin Taran-tino debuts as adirector withReservoir Dogs.

� Sean “PuffDaddy” Combsfounds urban-lifestyle brandBad Boy Enter-tainment.

� The New YorkStock Exchangecelebrates itsbicentennial.

� The WorldTrade Center isbombed; six arekilled and morethan 1,000injured.

�Wall Streethas a big year,but jobs leave thecity: NY nowemploys fewerthan 30% of allsecurities industryworkers.

� IBM, strugglingas mainframesgive way to desk-tops, announcesa loss of $5 bil-lion for 1992, thelargest ever at thetime.

� Viacomemerges victori-ous from a battlewith QVC Networkand cable-carrierTCI to acquireParamount Com-munications.

� Hip, haughtyand highly lever-aged BarneysNew York spendsnearly $300 mil-lion to open anine-story Madi-son Avenue flag-ship—the largeststore built in NYCsince the GreatDepression.

� The Demo-crats lose controlof the House forthe first time in40 years.

� The New YorkRangers win theirfirst Stanley Cupsince 1940.

� Starbucksinvades NYC witha 3,000-square-foot store at West87th and Broad-way, its biggest atthe time.

� The Dolanfamily, whichruns Cablevision,takes control ofMadison SquareGarden.

�MetroCardsare introduced atsubway turnstiles.

� GoldmanSachs makesmore than half abillion dollars inprofit for the year.Senior partnerStephen Fried-man is replacedby Jon Corzine,future governor ofNew Jersey.

�Web designfirm Razorfish isformed out of anapartment inAlphabet City,and onlinenewsletter @NYdebuts, promot-ing the burgeon-ing scene knownas Silicon Alley.

�Web browserNetscape goespublic in Augustat $28 a share.The stock pricejumps 168% inone day.

� NY’s violent-crime rate dropsto its lowest levelsince 1972.

� StudentSergey Brin givesprospective stu-dent Larry Page atour of Stanford.They later co-found Google.

�White House

intern MonicaLewinsky deliversa pizza to Presi-dent Bill Clinton.

� Chase Man-hattan andChemical Bankmerge.

� DoubleClick,the pioneer ofonline advertis-ing, is founded.

� Viagra ispatented by Pfiz-er; it’s approvedfor sale in 1998.Annual sales forthe erectile-dysfunction drugquickly exceed$1 billion.

� Publishingscion SteveForbes runs forpresident, sayinghe’d establish aflat income tax.He spends some$38 million onhis quest.

� The Yankeeswin the WorldSeries, their firstsince 1978.

� Turner Broad-casting System,owner of CNN,merges with TimeWarner.

� Google.com, aplay on the mathterm googol, isregistered as adomain.

� PrincessDiana dies in acar crash.

� The marketsremain positivefor the year—andWall Street firmspay out morethan $10 billionin bonuses.

� CandaceBushnell’s Sexand the City ispublished.

� Keith McNallyopens see-and-be-seen restau-rant Balthazar.

� NYPD officersassault Haitianimmigrant AbnerLouima with abroomstick whilehe is in custody.

� Harry Potterand the Sorcer-er’s Stone is pub-lished in the U.S.by Scholastic.

�PRESIDENTS

�NEW YORK CITY MAYORS

� NEW YORK STATE GOVERNORS

9%

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

�U.S. RECESSIONS

� FEDERAL FUND RATE

� STANDARD &POOR’S 500STOCK INDEX(weekly closes)

JULY 1990 THROUGH MARCH 1991

25THANNIVERSARY ISSUE

Oct. 13, 1989:The S&P 500 falls6.1% after the col-lapse of an LBOinvolving UnitedAirlines ends theera’s M&A boom.

Oct. 19, 1987:Black Monday.Big U.S. stockssink 22% in a sin-gle shocking day.

February 1995:The Dow closesabove 4,000.

Dec. 5, 1996:Fed chief AlanGreenspanutters two bigwords: “irrationalexuberance.”

Oct. 27, 1997:The Dow falls arecord 554points amidfears of an assetbubble in Asia.

November1995: TheDow closesabove 5,000.

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1991-1994: To help rescue S&Ls and other bankssmacked by real estate speculation, the Fed cuts (andcuts and cuts) its key interest rate to an ultralow 3%.

Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Crain’s New York Business, Eastern Consolidated, Federal Reserve Board, National Bureau of Economic Research, New York State Department of Labor, Standard & Poor’s, Wikipedia

RUDY GIULIANI

GEORGE PATAKI 2/06)

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1,400

1,200

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800

600

400

200

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June 28, 2010 | Crain’s New York Business | 31

GEORGE W. BUSH BARACK OBAMA

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG

DAVID PATERSON

� Pakistan com-pletes six under-ground nucleartests.

� Citicorp andTravelers mergeto create a bold“financial super-market” valued at$155 billion. Tomake the mergerlegal, Congresssoon changes thelaws that hadgoverned bankingsince the NewDeal.

� The U.S.brings antitrustcharges againstMicrosoft. Thelead prosecutor?Joel Klein, nowNYC’s publicschools chief.

� Little-knownWall Street ana-lyst Henry Blod-get says retailerAmazon.com isworth $400 ashare, more thandouble its price atthe time. It hits$400 in threeweeks.

� The euro isintroduced intothe world market-place.

� Goldman goespublic.

� The U.S. Sen-ate acquits animpeached Presi-dent Bill Clinton.

� Osama binLaden authorizesa plot to crashairplanes into theWorld Trade Cen-ter.

� The 646 areacode debuts.

� CNN’s LouDobbs resignsto launchSpace.com. Herejoins CNN in2001, after thedot-com bubblepops.

� Charles Wangof Computer Asso-ciates receivesthe largest bonusever: $670 mil-lion. The compa-ny is later foundto have doctoredresults to inflateits stock price.

� The Y2K bugscares countlesspeople into notflying late on NewYear’s Eve.

� AOL and TimeWarner announcetheir merger. TedTurner says thedeal is “betterthan sex.”

� Fed ChairmanAlan Greenspanis nominated fora third term.Months later,renowned journal-ist Bob Wood-ward publishes abook called Mae-stro: Greenspan’sFed and theAmerican Boom.

� Hillary Rodham Clintonis elected senatorfrom New York,marking the firsttime that a firstlady wins publicoffice.

� Shares inQualcomm, themaker of telecom-network equip-ment, trade at$650 each, anda PaineWebberanalyst predictsthey’ll soon fetch$1,000. Thestock ends theyear 67% short ofthat target.

� Hijackedplanes crashinto the WorldTrade Center, thePentagon and afield in ruralPennsylvania,killing nearly3,000.

� Enron goesbankrupt. In thepreceding weeks,virtually everyanalyst had ratedits stock a “buy.”

� NY attorneygeneral EliotSpitzer makes hisreputation crack-ing down on con-flicts of interestbetween WallStreet analystsand dealmakers.

� Credit defaultswaps begin tobe used widely.These derivativeswill help destroyAIG in 2008.

�More than20% of all NewYorkers workingon Wall Streetlose their jobs.

�Apple intro-duces the iPod.

�WorldCom col-lapses into bank-ruptcy amid mas-sive accountingfraud. Congresssoon passes theSarbanes-OxleyAct to protectinvestors.

� Citigroup tele-com analyst JackGrubman admitsto recommendingthat investors buyAT&T shares sothat CEO SandyWeill would helphis kids get intopreschool. A yearlater, Citi andother banks likeGoldman, MerrillLynch and Mor-gan Stanley pay atotal of $1.4 bil-lion to settlecharges of fraudand other wrong-doing.

� A survey of1,000 Manhat-tan residents bythe New YorkAcademy of Medi-cine shows that25% reporteddrinking morealcohol in themonths after theSept. 11 attacks,and 10% smokedmore.

� American Idoldebuts.

� The U.S. andthe U.K. invadeIraq, eventuallycapturing Sad-dam Hussein.

� NYSE chiefDick Grassoresigns, afterrevealing he hasa $190 milliontotal pay package.

� 45 millionpeople in eightNortheasternstates lose powerfor over a day.

�MySpace islaunched.

�Martha Stew-art is indicted forselling ImCloneshares following atip that the firm’scancer drug failedits FDA testing.She is later sen-tenced to fivemonths in prison.

� Citi CEOSandy Weill stepsaside amid con-cerns that thecompany’s mergerisn’t living up toits promise.

�A year afterThe New YorkTimes won a rec-ord seven Pulit-zers, it comesout that JaysonBlair fabricatedstories. Chiefeditor HowellRaines resigns.

� The death tollfor U.S. soldiers inIraq hits 1,000.

� The New YorkFed publishes thestudy Are HomePrices the Next“Bubble?” (Theconclusion: no.)

� La CôteBasque, La Cara-velle, Lutèce andLe Cirque close.

� Jamie Dimon,banished by Citi’sSandy Weill in1998, returns toNY, having soldBank One to J.P.Morgan Chase.After a stint asChase’s presi-dent, he becomesCEO in 2006.

� AT&T andEastman Kodak,part of the DowJones industrialaverage since theGreat Depression,are replaced byVerizon and Pfizer.

� Gmail iscreated.

� Facebook isfounded.

� The Indone-sian tsunami kills230,000 peoplein 14 countries.

� Hurricane Kat-rina kills morethan 1,800 anddisplaces hun-dreds of thou-sands more alongthe Gulf Coast.

� The mediansale price for aManhattan apart-ment reaches$830,000, versus$399,000 in2000.

� FederatedDepartmentStores agrees tobuy May Depart-ment Stores,essentially con-solidating thenation’s down-town departmentstores under theMacy’s banner.

� AIG oustslongtime CEOMaurice “Hank”Greenberg as aprobe by NY Attor-ney General EliotSpitzer gainssteam.

� A transit work-ers strike, the firstin 25 years, para-lyzes the city justbefore Christmas.

� YouTube islaunched.

� The Demo-crats regain con-trol of the House.

� Katie Couricjoins CBS as thefirst femaleanchor of theevening news.

�More than100,000 Queensresidents andworkers sweatwithout electricityfor nine record-hot summer days.

�Wall Streetpays out a record$34.3 billion inbonuses. BearStearns, Merrilland Morgan Stan-ley bet big onmortgages, buy-ing originators ofsubprime loans.But a suddenlybearish Goldmanbegins shortingthe mortgageindustry near theend of the year.

� Patti Smithperforms the finalconcert at punkrock mecca CBGB.The spacebecomes a JohnVarvatos store.

� Two BearStearns hedgefunds collapse;subprime lenderNew CenturyFinancial files forbankruptcy.

� The Black-stone Group buysEquity Office in a$39 billion LBO,then flips most ofits buildings.

� Rupert Mur-doch acquiresThe Wall StreetJournal and pub-lisher Dow Jonesfor $5 billion.

� 112 millionblogs are esti-mated to exist.

� “Queen ofMean” LeonaHelmsley dies.

� July: The num-ber of unsoldhomes in the U.S.reaches a 16-year high. Trea-sury SecretaryHenry Paulsonsays the troublein subprime mort-gages is unlikelyto spill into thebroader economy.

� December: Therecession begins.

� The mediansale price for aManhattan apart-ment peaks at$955,000.

� Eliot Spitzeradmits he’s ahigh-priced prosti-tute’s Client No. 9.

�March: BearStearns collapses.

� April: J.P. Mor-gan’s JamieDimon becomesthe fourth WallStreet CEO todeclare that thedarkest days ofthe credit crisisare history.

� September:Lehman Brothersfiles for bankrupt-cy. The ReserveFund “breaks thebuck” on a flag-ship money-mar-ket fund, trigger-ing a worldwidefinancial panic.AIG collapses.

� December:Bernie Madoff’sPonzi schemeunravels.

� Citi’s VikramPandit says he’llwork for $1 a year.

� The $1 trillionAmerican Recov-ery and Reinvest-ment Act passes.

� AIG employeesin the divisionthat destroyed thecompany receivedeath threats.

� Federal bank-ing regulatorsgive banks “stresstests.” The healthi-est quickly repayU.S. bailout funds.

� Ex-GE CEO JackWelch says the cor-porate obsessionwith short-termprofits and share-price gains was “adumb idea.”

�� ImClone isbought by Eli Lillyfor $6.8 billion.Its cancer drugworks, after all.

�Wall Streetcoins a record $61billion in profitsand pays out $20billion in bonuses.

� Former HouseMajority LeaderTom DeLay re-emerges on Danc-ing With the Stars.

�� Earthquakeskill 200,000Haitians and 500Chileans.

� Near-universalhealth care cov-erage is passeddespite populistprotests againstrunaway federalspending anddeath panels.

� Goldman issued for fraud bythe SEC forallegedly peddlinga subprime mort-gage investmentdesigned to fail.

� Greece’s debtwoes threaten toundo Europeanunity—and maybeeven the euro.

� NY legislators,staring at a $9 bil-lion deficit, misstheir April 1 dead-line to pass a bal-anced budget.

� Lady Gaga hassix Top 40 singlesin 12 months.

� BP shares fallmore than a thirdin the wake ofthe worst offshoreoil spill in U.S.history.

ELIOT SPITZER

MARCH 2001 THROUGH NOVEMBER 2001 DECEMBER 2007 THROUGH ... ?

October 1998: After Russia defaults on short-termdebts, markets collapse and a $4 billion hedge fundcalled Long Term Capital fails. The New York Fed ginsup a bailout of LTC, paid for by Wall Street banks.

March 10, 2000: TheNasdaq peaks at5,069. The tech-stoked index then falls77% in 30 months.

Sept. 17, 2001: TheNYSE reopens afternearly a week. TheDow closes belowthe previous year’slow for the first timein 19 years.

October 2007:Merrill and Citi reporthuge mortgage-relat-ed losses. The Dowhits its intraday top:14,980.10.

October 2008: TheTreasury gets $700 billionto buy subprime loans.The NYSE sees its high-est-volume day. Marketseverywhere crash, andU.S. stocks end the yeardown about 40%.

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2004: With the econo-my growing again afterthe tech-stock bust, theFed begins ratchetingup interest rates.

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May 6, 2010:the Flash Crash.The Dow plunges1,000 points inmere momentsbefore recover-ing. The causebaffles regulatorsand investors.

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