History of Wall Street

In March, 1792, twenty-four of New York City's leading merchants met secretly at Corre's Hotel to discuss ways to bring order to the securities business and to wrest it from their competitors, the auctioneers. Two months later, on May 17, 1792, these merchants signed a document named the Buttonwood Agreement, named after their traditional meeting place, a buttonwood tree. The agreement called for the signers to trade securities only among themselves, to set trading fees, and not to participate in other auctions of securities. These twenty-four men had founded what was to become the New York Stock Exchange. The Exchange would later be located at 11 Wall Street.

A century before, Dutch settlers had built a wall to protect themselves from Indians, priates, and other dangers. The path had become a bustling commercial thoroughfare because it joined the banks of the East River with those of the Hudson River on the west. The path was named Wall Street. Early merchants built their warehouses and shops on this path, along with a city hall and a church. New York was the U.S. national capitol from 1785 until 1790 and Federal Hall was built on Wall Street. George Washington was inaugurated on the steps of this building.

The first stock exchange in America was actually founded in Philadelphia in 1790. The New York merchant group, realizing that their stock exchange was now in decline after the early tumult of revolutionary war bonds and stock in the Bank of the United States, sent an observer to Philadelphia in early 1817. Upon his return, bearing news of the thriving Philadelphia exchange, the New York Stock and Exchange Board was formally organized on March 8, 1817.

The exchange rented a room at 40 Wall street and every morning the president, Anthony Stockholm, read the stocks to be traded. The exchange was an exclusive organization, new members were required to be voted in, and a candidate could be black-balled by three negative votes. In 1817 a seat on the exchange cost $25, in 1827 it increased to $100, and in 1848 the price was $400. Members wore top hats and swallowtail coats.

The early 1900s saw the rise of huge fortunes made on Wall Street. In 1901 J.P. Morgan astounded Wall Street by creating a billion dollar merger resulting in the U.S. Steel Corporation. In 1907 a wave of panic hit Wall Street. Eight hundred million dollars in securities were unloaded within a few months. Stock prices plummeted and runs on banks became a daily occurence. When the Knickerbocker Trust Company was forced to close its doors a panic swept banks throughout the country. Morgan pressured the leading New York bankers to forestall a total financial collapse of the country. They set up a single banking trust, with most large banks across the U.S. contributing to its financing. Morgan's own group, as you might imagine, had controlling interest.

The first of the two largest Wall Street panics occurred in 1929. The Wall Street con game, already working full tilt, had convinced millions of Americans that the country was riding on an upward spiraling wave of financial glory. Both rich and poor put their money into stocks and bonds. The Wall Street myth, broadcast by the Insiders' newspapers and magazines, spotlighted stories of shopkeepers and workers making fortunes in the stock market overnight.

Stock prices were pushed up beyond any relationship with the actual worth of the companies. In 1929 stock prices were 400% higher than they had been in 1924. The Insiders had made their fortunes and could no longer sustain the con, so on October 23, 1929, the market fell 31 points. Stock prices fell an additional 49 points on October 28 and on the 29th the entire market fell apart. Some brokers and investors jumped out of their office windows. The 1929 crash hit the U.S. even harder than the one that was to come in 1987. The fallout from the '29 crash devastated the country, leading to a long-time economic collapse and depression that was to continue until the start of the Second World War in 1941.

The Wall Street crash of 1987 - "Black Monday" - occurred on October 19th. The Dow Jones fell an astounding 508 points, largest one-day loss in the stock market's history. The Insiders running the con game landed on their feet and quickly misdirected the public's attention, laying the blame on computerized (program) trading. Though the cascade of sell orders from large institutions had clogged the system, leaving many individual investors stranded while prices fell, the '87 crash was created by the same Insider specialist group who control every facet of the stock market for their own profit.

Blackle - Black Version of Google

Blackle is nothing but a black version of google .

"A few months ago, TreeHugger Mark Ontkush wrote a post on his blog EcoIron titled Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year . The post lays out the following train of thought. "An all white web page uses about 74 watts to display, while an all black page uses only 59 watts." Google, which has a white background and gets about "200 million queries a day" could reduce global energy use by 750 Megawatt-hours a year by simply changing the color of its homepage to black.

In response to this post a black version of Google emerged called Blackle.com . According to Blackle's homepage at publication time, 4,408.917 Watt hours have been saved by. Nice ideas. But how does the search measure up? Very well indeed. Give it a whirl yourself and start saving energy one search at a time. :: Blackle.com

Good story with a moral

There was a farmer who grew superior quality and award-winning corn. Each year he entered his corn in the state fair where it won honor and
prizes. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learnt something interesting about how he grew it.
The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors'.
"How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?" the reporter asked.

"Why sir, "said the farmer, "didn't you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow
inferior, sub-standard and poor quality corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn.

If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn."
The farmer gave a superb insight into the connectedness of life. His corn cannot improve unless his neighbor's corn also improves. So it is in the
other dimensions! Those who choose to be at harmony must help their neighbors and colleagues to be at peace. Those who choose to live well must help others to live well.

Story of tulip mania in Holland from centuries back

Tulip Mania : In 1559 when the first tulip bulbs arrived in Holland and Germany, people fell in love with the exotic Turkish flowers. Soon speculators entered tulip market purely for monetary gain and trading tulips became popular.
Speculation led to high trading volumes by merchants and shopkeepers. At the height of the tulip mania, in 1635, single tulip bulbs were being exchanged for as much as four tons of wheat, silver cups, two casks of wine and four oxen.
People sold homes, livestock, everything for the privilege of owning tulips, on the expectation that prices would continue to rise. By 1636, tulips were being traded like stocks on the Amsterdam stock exchange.
Now comes the peak :
Smart players began to liquidate their tulip holdings as prices rose. Tulip prices weakened rapidly. Panic seized the market. Within six weeks, tulip prices crashed by 90 per cent.
Obviously tulips have little practical value. So, what could cause people to behave so irrationally? Nobody knows but over centuries, we've seen collective insanity time and again. It's herd mentality where everybody rushes off to buy something and then suddenly,
everybody stampedes in the opposite direction.
This story is now used as a warning to investors to be careful.

Coincidence about Lincoln and Kennedy

I have seen this numerous times, and not sure how much it is true, but here goes:

What a coincidence! No history teacher told us the following (I suppose) ....

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
Both wives lost a child while living in the WhiteHouse.

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.
Both Presidents were shot in the head.

Now it gets really weird.

Lincoln 's secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's Secretary was named Lincoln.

Both were assassinated by Southerners.
Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born 1839
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born 1939

Both assassins were known by their three names.
Both names are composed of fifteen letters.

Now hang on to your seat !

Lincoln was shot at the theater named "Ford."
Kennedy was shot in a car called " Lincoln" made by "Ford."
Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.

And here's the "kicker":

A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland.
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.

Lincoln was shot in a theater and the assassin ran to a warehouse.
Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and the assassin ran to a theater.

Is this the definition of COINCIDENCE?

Some more interesting facts

- The builders of the great pyramids of Egypt were paid onions, radishes and garlic by the Pharaoh.
- It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.And it is impossible to yawn with your eyes closed!.
- Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.
- Believe it or not, Abraham Lincoln, the first U.S. president to sport a beard, grew it at the suggestion of eleven-year old girl, Grace Bedell. This young girl from Westfield New York sent a letter to Lincoln saying: ``you would look a great deal better, for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be president.’’ Lincoln took this little girl’s advice and grew a beard. And yes, he did become president soon after! When Lincoln met Grace later on, he kissed her and said: ‘You see, the whiskers grow for you Grace.’’
- The first owner of the Marlboro company died of lung cancer.
- If you add together all the numbers on a roulette wheel (1 to 36), the
total is the number 666.
- Scientists believe that Africa and South America were once joined but the earth’s movement separated them. If you look at the coastlines of each continent they look as though they would fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
- Sound at the right vibration can bore holes through a solid object.
- The Earth gets heavier each day by tons, as meteoric dust settles on it.