1959

American Economics 1954-1966

  • Chase National Bank and Bank of the Manhattan Merge

    Chase National Bank and Bank of the Manhattan Merge
    The Chase National Bank and the Bank of the Manhattan Company are merged into the nation's second-largest bank.
  • Tax Reduction

    Tax Reduction
    Taxes are reduced by $5 billion, excess profits tax expires and personal tax rates are reduced.
  • Period: to

    American Economics 1954-1966

  • Watkins Commission Created

    Watkins Commission Created
    Created to determine if economic censuses were necessary and in February 1954, published its report recommending its resumption. In the report, the commission noted that: "The fact-gathering program of the Bureau is not one of assembling statistics for statistics' sake. Rather, it is a purposive program authorized by the Congress for the periodic measurement of the condition of the country. These measures serve in themselves as a basis for innumerable decisions and actions, throughout our nation
  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average High

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average High
    The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at an all-time high of 382.74, the first time the Dow has surpassed its peak level reached just before the Wall Street Crash of 1929
  • Deflation

  • Stock Payments

    The Federal Reserve Board raises the required down payment for purchasing stock to 60 percent to dampen speculation.
  • Minimum Wage is Increased

    Minimum wage is increased from 75 cents to $1 per hour.
  • AFL and CIO Merge

    AFL and CIO merge in America's largest labor union federation
  • Highway Construction Program

    Highway Construction Program
    Eisenhower submits to Congress ten-year, $100 billion highway construction program blueprint of the interstate system.
  • Polio Vaccine Released

    Polio Vaccine Released
    Polio Vaccine was tested and launched with a mass inoculation of school children. The results were amazing 60 – 70% prevention. The vaccination program saved more than $5 in direct costs and approximately $11 in additional costs to society.
  • Stock Market Suffers

    As a result of the President's heart attack, the stock market suffers its worst one-day loss in history.
  • Interstate Highway Act

    Interstate Highway Act
    President Eisenhower secures passages of Interstate Highway Act, which will construct 41,000 miles (66,000 km) of the Interstate Highway System over a 20-year period
  • Hard Disk Drive Invention

    Hard Disk Drive Invention
    IBM introduces the world's first magnetic hard disk for data storage. The IBM 305 RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control) offers unprecedented performance by permitting random access to any of the million characters distributed over both sides of 50 two-foot-diameter disks. Produced in California, IBM's first hard disk stored about 2,000 bits of data per square inch and cost about $10,000 per megabyte. By 1997, the cost of storing a megabyte had dropped to around ten cents HDDs
  • Ceiling Rates on Bank Time

    Ceiling rates on bank time and saving accounts are raised to 3 percent
  • The Eisenhower Doctrine

    The Eisenhower Doctrine
    In the Eisenhower Doctrine, a country could request American economic assistance and/or aid from U.S. military forces if it was being threatened by armed aggression from another state.
  • Sharp Recession Begins

  • Recession of 1958

  • Business Expansion Begins.

  • New Tax Rate

    Eisenhower recommends continuation of a 52 percent tax rate on corporate profits.
  • Alaska & Hawaii admitted as the 49th & 50th U.S. States

    Alaska & Hawaii admitted as the 49th & 50th U.S. States
    Alaska's economy is based on the oil industry. Tourism is the second chief industry in the state. It brings about a billion dollars to the state economy. Almost 10% of the population is employed in tourism. Travel and tourism is even more vital in Hawaii. The tropical weather and sandy beaches attract tourists from all over the globe.
  • Recession of (April 1960 to February 1961)

    According to the National Bureau of Economic Research the recession lasted for 10 months, beginning in April 1960 and ending in February 1961. Throughout this recession, the Gross Domestic Product of the United States fell 1.6 percent. Though the recession ended in November 1960, the unemployment rate did not spike for some months. In May 1961, the rate reached its height for the cycle of 7.1 percent.
  • OPEC Formed

    OPEC Formed
    The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. It is an oil cartel whose mission is to coordinate the policies of the oil-producing countries. The goal is to secure a steady income to the member states and a secure supply of oil to the consumers.
  • Tax Incentives on the Federal Tax System

    The tax system must be adequate to meet our public needs. It must meet them fairly, calling on each of us to contribute his proper share to the cost of government. It must encourage efficient use of our resources. It must promote economic stability and stimulate economic growth. Economic expansion in turn creates a growing tax base, thus increasing revenue and thereby enabling us to meet more readily our public needs, as well as our needs as private individuals.
  • Minimum Wage is Raised

    Minimum wage is raised to $1.25 per hour and coverage extended to 3.6 million workers
  • Vietnam War Officially Begins

    Vietnam War Officially Begins
    Vietnam War officially begins with 900 military advisors landing in Saigon
  • NYSE Loss

    NYSE Loss
    The NYSE experiences its greatest loss since 29 Oct. 1919.
  • $900 Million Public-Works Bill

    President Kennedy signs into law a $900 million public-works bill for projects in economically depressed areas. The program was designed to carry out worthwhile and necessary projects in areas with high rates of unemployment.
  • Trade Expansion Act

    Trade Expansion Act
    The United States Congress granted the White House unprecedented authority to negotiate tariff reductions of up to 50%. It paved the way for the Kennedy Round of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade negotiations, concluding on June 30, 1967
  • Revenue Act

    Revenue Act allows 7 percent investment tax credit for long-lived assets
  • Kennedy’s assassination

    Kennedy’s assassination
    JFK was assassinated.
  • British Invasion

    British Invasion
    The Beatles arrive in the U.S., and subsequent appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, mark the start of the British Invasion (or, an increased number of rock and pop performers from the United Kingdom who became popular around the world, including the U.S.)
  • Great Society

    Great Society
    President Johnson proposes the Great Society, whose social reforms were aimed at the elimination of poverty and racial injustice. New major spending programs that addressed education, medical care, urban problems, and transportation were launched later in the 1960s.
  • Revenue Act

    Revenue Act cuts personal and corporate income taxes, accelerates corporate payments, and liberalizes investment tax credit
  • Economic Opportunity Act of 1964

    The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 was essential to Johnson's Great Society crusade and it’s War on Poverty. The Act included several social programs to encourage the health, education, and general welfare of the disadvantaged.
  • Economic Opportunity Act

    Signed by Lyndon B. Johnson on August 20, 1964, the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 was central to Johnson's Great Society campaign and its War on Poverty. Implemented by the since disbanded Office of Economic Opportunity, the Act included several social programs to promote the health, education, and general welfare of the impoverished.
  • U.S. in Vietnam War

    U.S. in Vietnam War
    The Vietnam War was the lengthy fight between nationalist forces struggling to merge the country of Vietnam under a communist government and the United States (with the aid of the South Vietnamese) trying to elude the spread of communism. The Vietnam War was responsible for a heavy strain on the financial resources of the US economy. Due to the war exigency, there was a negative imbalance in the industrial sector. Factories which were manufacturing consumer goods had to shift their onus towards
  • Emergency Housing

    In order to cope with the current recession, Eisenhower signs into law a bill appropriating $1.85 billion for emergency housing.
  • Medicare and Medicaid

    Medicare and Medicaid
    President Johnson signed both into law the summer of 1965. These programs provided hospital and medical insurance to elder Americans, Americans with disabilities and low-income Americans. Medicare's introduction in 1965 was, and remains to date, the single largest change in health insurance coverage in U.S. history.
  • HUD Established

    HUD Established
    The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is a Cabinet department in the Executive branch of the United States federal government. Although its beginnings were in the House and Home Financing Agency, it was founded as a Cabinet department in 1965, as part of the "Great Society" program of President Lyndon Johnson, to develop and execute policies on housing and metropolises.
  • National Organization for Women (NOW) was founded

    National Organization for Women (NOW) was founded
    An organization founded to help set up the advancement of women. One of the main purposes for this organization was to promote the equal treatment of women, including the workplace, providing equal pay for women.
  • Stock Decline

    Stock prices tumble; the Dow Jones industrial average falls to 744
  • Investment Tax Credit

    Investment Tax Credit suspended by legislation