Over Last 100 Years, Multi-term GOP Presidents = Bank Crisis

OK, correlation does not equal causation; but this is modestly humorous.  Over the last century, any time you had a multi-term GOP president (in other words, long enough to do real damage) you had a pretty substantial collapse in the banking industry (i.e., near fundamental economic collapse).  For the statistics junkies the R does not equal 1...it assuredly can be described as R<>1 but R is notably greater than 1.  Just putting down a list of presidents over the last century and then mapping the major bank panics over the same time period reveals some interesting stuff.

The yellow highlighted line items represent multi-term GOP presidents with banking panics associated with them.  Those in blue/cyan represents multi-term GOP presidents where no such panic occurred.  Eisenhower and Nixon are the two non-panic GOP presidents.  A simple business cycle recession took place near the end of Eisenhower's presidency.  He's also the president to kick-off the largest public works program in world history with the Interstate highway system.  Richard Nixon, of course, was president during the stagflation years of the oil shocks though a lot of his economic woes likely came out of spending for Johnson's Great Society programs.  

The other presidents with panics associated with them are Theodore Roosevelt with the famous bank panic of 1907 where JP Morgan had to step in as the lender of last resort.  His notable power led to demands that a non-private lender of last resort be created.  This was the impetus to create the FED which was established in 1913.  Prior to the creation of the FED the last central bank in the US was abolished by Andrew Jackson in the early part of the 1800s which resulted in most of the 1800s being characterized by constant bank panics and runs.  We then have Coolidge and the Great Depression followed by Reagan and the Savings and Loan crisis.  Finally, we have George Bush and the most recent melt down.  

Again, it's an interesting view; but that's about it.  While the press puts up silly comparisons between Texas secession and 1861, we thought we'd put some silliness up of our own.  

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