http://fxmatters.co.nz Facts, figures and insights on financial markets and economics Sat, 06 Aug 2011 04:06:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 http://fxmatters.co.nz/2008/06/28/today-in-history-for-week-30-june-2008/ http://fxmatters.co.nz/2008/06/28/today-in-history-for-week-30-june-2008/#comments Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:40:24 +0000 Anthony Byett http://fxmatters.co.nz/2008/06/28/today-in-history-for-week-30-june-2008/

July – the S&P500 Index has dropped in 7 of the last 10 years, by an average 1.6% per month.

Second half of year – EUR/USD has gained in 7 of the last 10 years, by an average of 4.3% per half.

2 July 1997 – Thailand devalues the baht, setting in train a domino affect on other Asian currencies.

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27 June 1857 – Scientific America warns “the whale oil which hitherto have been much relied on in this country to furnish light and yearly become more scarce, may in time almost entirely fail”. Prices did rise sharply from 43c per gallon to US$2.25 between 1823 and 1866 but whale oil was quickly replaced by kerosene.

27 June 1878 – Japan adopts new currency system based on yen.

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22 June 1972 – the UK imposes controls on the exchange of sterling and floated the currency, effectively ending the sterling area (which had former British Empire countries either using sterling or pegging their currency to sterling). NZ was one of 45 countries to leave the sterling area the next day, allowing their currencies to fluctuate independently of the GBP (the NZD being fixed to USD at the time).

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7 June 1956 – Sir Thomas Gresham lays the cornerstone of England’s Royal Exchange in London. London today is still the major fx centre.

5-10 June 1967 – Arab-Israel six-day war that shaped the current Israel. And 7 June 1981 – Israel bomb an Iraqi nuclear reactor. Now Israel again threaten to attack Gaza—and also Iran (albeit a threat largely due to internal politicing).

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2 June 1956 – “the instability of the economy is equaled only by the instability of the economists,” writes Harvard Professor John Williams in the New York Times.

2 June 1987 – Paul Volcker resigns as chairman of the US Federal Reserve Board, to be replaced by Alan Greenpan.

5 June 1933 – US creditors can no longer demand payment in gold.

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26 May 1908 – first Middle East oil strike comes in Iran’s Masjed Soleyman, 100 years ago, and days ahead of the letter already in transit from London calling off exploration as money had run out. The oil company formed was later to become BP.

June – NZD/CAD down in 8 of last 10 months of June.

1 June 1998 – The European Central Bank (ECB) is created.

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23 May 1788 – Lewis Tappan, father of the credit rating industry is born (his firm eventually to become Dun & Bradstreet).

25 May 1916 – Henry Ford says “History is more or less bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history we make today” – he could well have been espousing the Efficient Market Hypothesis.

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16 May 1866 – The US Congress eliminates the half dime coin and replaces it with the five cent piece, or nickel.

17 May 1792 – The New York Stock Exchange is formed.

18 May 2007 – As a reminder of how far prices/rates have come, USD prices on the day were oil $65 (now $126), gold $662 ($886), wheat $471 ($804) and euro $1.35 ($1.55).

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8 May 1884 – Harry Truman born, later to become US President and to remark “It’s a recession when your neighbour loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose yours”, a saying likely to be heard often in the US again this year.

11 May 1998 – first euro coin minted, to then be tested by French Foreign Minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn with a bite on the coin “to see if it’s real”.

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2 May 1998 – the European Central Bank is founded in order to define and excute EU monetary policy—a reminder of the youth of the euro.

May – a month of more extreme EUR/JPY movements that usual, experiencing 4 of the largest annual falls and 4 of the largest annual rises over 20 years. Figures to better so far this year are -4.3% (Jan) and +3.6% (Apr to date).

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