Introduction
Company Profiles for Students (CPFS) has been designed specifically to meet the curricular needs of high
school and undergraduate college students taking courses
in economics, business, and history. Part of Gale’s successful line of business products for students, CPFS provides information on both the current operations and performance of 280 contemporary public and private
U.S.-based and significant foreign-owned companies, in
addition to the historical events, people, and strategies
that shaped them. CPFS satisfies research assignments
regarding a particular company’s stock performance, new
product lines, or comparisons of the management styles
of companies in different industries. By focusing on the
many different aspects of a company, which are typically
studied in high schools and frequently omitted from standard business publications, CPFS meets the strong curricular need for business information written at the high
school level. See Gale’s Business Leader Profiles for Students for in-depth information on nearly 250 prominent
individuals who have made significant contributions to
business and industry.
An advisory panel of high school teachers and librarians reviewed a list of potential companies and, based
on their knowledge and experience, helped select the
companies to be covered. Based on this list we then chose
35 industries to profile that best represented the companies covered in this edition. Each company and industry
essay was then researched and compiled by a professional
writer.
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print resources, and online databases to give users a onestop reference source containing a wide variety of information. Each entry in CPFS focuses on one company.
Each entry heading lists the name of the company, a variant name of the company if one applies, and the year the
company was founded. In addition, each entry lists contact information, including address and phone number,
as well as fax and toll free number, email, and URL when
available. Essays cover some or all of the following topics:
• Overview: Provides a brief synthesis outlining the
importance of the company, along with its market(s),
broad strategies, competitors, etc.
• Company Finances: Gives textual information
and, in many cases, graphical information illustrating revenues and stock prices over a period of time.
• Analysts’ Opinions: Discusses various analyses of
the company’s market share, strategies, stock market position, etc.
• History: Gives historical information on the company’s genesis and provides a description of inventions or trends that spurred the establishment of the
company and of key events throughout the company’s existence.
• Strategy: Provides an overview of past and current
strategies.
How Each Entry Is Organized
• Influences: Covers successes or failures that impacted how the company has done business or has
positioned itself.
Company Profiles for Students provides users with
a single, comprehensive resource. Data was pulled together from annual reports, press releases, numerous
• Current Trends: Explains the current influences
on company strategy and how the company intends
to proceed.
I n t r o d u c t i o n
• Products: Provides a description of the company’s
current products and/or information about new products the company plans to introduce in the future.
cluding major technological advances, historic
events, scandals, major products, key legislation,
and other factors that have shaped the industry.
• Corporate Citizenship: Outlines the company’s
policies and record in regard to the environment, human rights, affirmative action/diversity, etc.
• Significant Events Affecting the Industry: Explains important events that have affected and are
currently affecting the industry, such as major advances and the impact of these on the industry.
• Global Presence: Explains which foreign markets
the company has entered and any challenges it faces
there. Includes information on the company’s global
market share, operations, etc.
• Employment: Provides information on corporate
culture.
• Sources of Information: First, a Bibliography is
provided that includes annotated citations for publicly accessible books, periodicals, and online
sources used to compile the entry. Second, a section
titled For an annual report provides the Internet
address, telephone, or address to locate the company’s annual report. Third, a section titled For additional industry research contains primary Standard Industrial Codes (SICs) and descriptions that
apply to the company.
Other Features
Company Profiles for Students includes more than
400 logos and photos, as well as graphs illustrating revenue and stock prices. Most entries also include a
chronology of key events in the company’s history and,
when appropriate, sidebars on prominent individuals
and/or products associated with the companies. In addition, each entry includes a “Fast Facts” sidebar that includes all or some of the following elements:
• Ownership: Explains whether the company is a
public or privately owned company and who it is
owned by.
• Ticker Symbol: Provides the company’s or the
company owner’s ticker symbol when applicable.
• Officers: Contains a list of up to four company officers, their titles, and their ages and salaries (if
available).
• Employees: Gives the number of employees at the
company.
• Principal Subsidiary Companies: Supplies a summary of significant corporate relationships.
• Chief Competitors: Provides a summary of the
company’s primary competitors.
An appendix of 35 industry profiles is also included,
which give information regarding the industry as a whole.
These entries contain all or some of the following topics:
• Overview: Provides an overview of the industry,
including such aspects as key regulatory bodies affecting the industry.
• New Trends Influencing the Industry: Provides
information on major advances and their impacts on
the industry, including environmental issues if pertinent.
• Key Competitors: Covers background information, historical highlights, and current status of specific industry leaders.
• Employment: When available, contains information on the employment practices of the industry including data on salaries and benefits, type of
worker/education preferred, positions available, and
any other information about the industry’s employment needs.
• Global Presence: Includes information on the leading countries in the world that have key companies
in this industry or where this industry provides significant income to the country’s economy.
• Industry Projections: Explains where the industry
is heading in the future.
• Bibliography: Provides users with suggested further reading on the industry. These sources, also
used to compile the essays, are publicly accessible
materials such as magazines, general and academic
periodicals, books, annual reports, government
sources, and online databases.
Other features include a general business chronology of events specifically pertaining to companies; a
glossary of economic and business terms found within
the text; a directory of business web sites; and a general
index that includes primary people, company names, and
brand names.
Comments and Suggestions
Questions, comments, and suggestions regarding
Company Profiles for Students are welcomed. Please
contact:
The Editor Company Profiles for Students
Gale Research
27500 Drake Rd.
Farmington Hills, MI 48331-3535
Telephone: (248)677-4253
Toll-Free: (800)877-GALE
Fax: (248)699-8070
Email: Donna.Craft@gale.com
• History of the Industry: Gives historical information on the industry’s genesis and development, in-
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Chronology of Key
Business Events
1865: The Civil war brings the value of Confederate paper money down and the value of Union Gold rises.
The Confederate money remains worthless for another 13 years.
1866: The National Labor Congress convenes in Baltimore and forms the National Labor Union; Western
Union Telegraph absorbs two small telegraph companies becoming the first great U.S. monopoly.
1867: Steel rail production begins in the United States,
which had been using iron rails or imported steel;
Milwaukee printer Christopher Sholes invents the
typewriter; inventor Benjamin Tilghman devises a
process for producing wood pulp for paper production.
1868: U.S. businesses resist government intervention by
quoting the fourteenth amendment; Congress enacts
a law restricting work days to 8 hours for government workers, but in the private sector, most laborers work 10 to 12 hour days.
1869: Wall Street crashes for the first time, ruining small
speculators, as a small group of financiers try to corner the market on gold, and close half the banks and
businesses in New York in the process; the Noble
Order of the Knights of Labor, a secret society, is
founded following the death of the president of the
National Labor Union; the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads meet in Promontory Point,
Utah, completing the first transcontinental railroad.
1872: Congress enacts the first consumer protection law,
making it illegal to use the mail for fraudulent purposes.
1873: A farmers’ convention attacks monopolies, calling
them “detrimental to the public prosperity,” and urges
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an end to government subsidies to corporations and
an end to tariff protection for industry; The Fourth
Coinage Act is passed by Congress making gold the
sole U.S. monetary standard and inadvertently making trade dollars legal tender in amounts up to $5.
1877: The Supreme Court sustains the state law of 1871
of state supervised grain elevators and lays the
ground work for all regulation of U.S. businesses by
government.
1878: Congress votes to reduce circulation of paper
money, which has regained its value for the first time
since 1865; shares in gas companies plummet as
Thomas Edison works out methods for cheap production and transmission of electrical current, making it adaptable for household use.
1883: U.S. railroads adopt standard time with four time
zones: Eastern, Central, Rocky Mountain, and Pacific; Thomas Edison pioneers the radio tube.
1886: Labor struggles for an eight-hour work day and
better working conditions leads 610,000 workers to
strike, the most ever in nineteenth-century America;
a new American Federation of Labor (AF of L) is
founded; the Supreme Court rules that only the federal government can regulate interstate railway rates.
1887: The Interstate Commerce Act is passed by Congress and orders railroads to keep their rates fair and
reasonable.
1890: The Sherman Antitrust Act is passed by Congress
to curb the power of U.S. monopolies; the McKinley Tariff Act is passed by Congress and increases
the average U.S. import duty to its highest level ever;
the United Mine Workers of America is founded as
an affiliate of the AF of L.
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1891: The first full-service advertising agency opens in
New York, providing copy, art, production, and
placement.
1893: Wall Street prices plummet and the market collapses, 600 banks close their doors, and more than
15,000 businesses fail as an economic depression
hits the United States.
1894: The Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act reduces tariffs by
20 percent and includes an income tax on incomes
over $4,000 a year.
1895: The Supreme Court fails to uphold the Sherman
Antitrust Act by ruling that controlling the manufacturing process affects interstate commerce only
indirectly and incidentally; The Supreme Court rules
that the income tax provision of the Wilson-Gorman
Tariff Act is unconstitutional; a gold rush to
Canada’s Klondike begins.
1897: The Dingley Tariff Act raises costs of living by
increasing duties to an average of 57 percent; The
influx of gold from the Klondike gold rush helps end
the economic depression; after a 12-week strike, bituminous coal workers win an eight-hour day, semimonthly pay, abolition of company stores that
charge premium prices, and biennial conferences;
The Supreme Court rules that railroads are subject
to the Sherman Antitrust Act.
1899: Congress passes the Refuse Act giving the Army
Corps of Engineers the power to prosecute polluters,
providing fines of up to $2,500 for oil spills and
other similar pollution, but the act is not enforced.
1901: Wall Street panics as brokerage houses sell off
stock so they can raise funds to take over the Northern Pacific Railroad; the stock prices in the railroad
fluctuate from a high of $1,000 per share to a low
of $150 per share and the Northers Securities holding company ends up owning most of the country’s
railroads.
1902: United Mine Workers lead a strike of 147,000 anthracite coal workers that cripples the United States;
President T. Roosevelt begins instituting antitrust
proceedings against many U.S. corporations; Congress passes the National Reclamation Act, which
gives the federal government the rights to build irrigation dams throughout the West and limits the
size of individual land holdings receiving federal
water to 160 acres.
1904: The Supreme Court rules that the Northern Securities trust formed in 1901 violates the Sherman Antitrust Act.
1905: The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) joins
U.S. workers and attacks the AF of L for supporting the capitalist system; a New York law limiting
hours of work in the baking industry is considered
unconstitutional by the Supreme Court; Upton Sinclair exposes the horrific working conditions in the
meat-packing industry in his novel The Jungle.
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1906: The Hepburn Act is passed, which extends jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission
(ICC) and gives the ICC the power to fix railroad
rates; Congress appoints $2.5 million and New York
bankers loan hundreds of millions of dollars to San
Francisco to rebuild the city after an earthquake and
fire devastates the city; a Pure Food and Drug bill
is passed by Congress to regulate producers and sellers of food.
1907: New York Stock Exchange prices drop sharply
because of financial drains from rebuilding San
Francisco, several railroad expansion programs, and
the Russo-Japanese War of 1905, sparking an economic depression.
1908: The Supreme Court rules that discrimination
against union labor in interstate commerce violates
the fifth amendment.
1910: The Manns-Elkins Act amends the Interstate
Commerce Act and regulates telephone, telegraph,
and cable companies under ICC regulations.
1911: Yale political economic professor Irving Fisher
proposes the theory that prices rise in proportion
to the supply of money and the speed at which
money circulates, and pioneers indexing the economy with price indexes, cost-of-living indexes,
etc.; the first SAE handbook on automotive standardization is published by the Society of Automotive Engineers.
1912: The Shirley amendment to the Pure Food and
Drug Law prohibits far-fetched claims of therapeutic effects; the Associated Advertising Clubs of
America adopts a Truth in Advertising code.
1913: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics computes its
first monthly consumer price index to determine the
fairness of wages; the Underwood-Simmons Tariff
Act lowers import duties by an average of 30 percent, which hurts many U.S. manufacturers who
fight for restoration of tariff protection; the GlassOwen Currency Act establishes 12 Federal Reserve
banks in 12 major cities and requires member banks
to maintain cash reserves proportionate to their deposits with the Federal Reserve system; the Federal
Reserve’s board of governors determine the amount
of cash in circulation, provide elasticity to the supply of currency, and can act to control inflation.
1914: The New York Stock Exchange closes as Montreal, Toronto, Madrid, London, and many other European exchanges close due to the escalation of war
in Europe; the Clayton Antitrust Act strengthens the
federal government’s power against restraint of trade
as outlawed by the Sherman Antitrust Act; A Federal Trade Commission is established to prevent unfair competition in U.S. industry.
1915: Delaware begins revising and liberalizing its corporation laws to attract corporations and soon be-
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comes the national leader in chartering the largest
corporations; IWW leader Joe Hill is executed.
1916: The Owen-Keating Act forbids shipment in interstate commerce of goods on which children under
14 have labored or on which children 14 to 16
worked more than eight hours a day; the Adamson
Bill provides an eight hour work day on interstate
railroads with time and a half pay for overtime; the
U.S. railroad industry reaches its peak of 254,000
miles of track.
1917: President Wilson issues an embargo proclamation
and places government control over exports of U.S.
food, fuel, iron, steel, and war material.
1918: The Supreme Court rules that the Owen-Keating
Act is unconstitutional and encroaches on a state’s
rights.
1919: Four million workers either strike or are locked
out in one of the biggest years for labor unrest in
U.S. history; World War I costs the United States
nearly $22 billion and an additional $9 billion in
loans to allied powers.
1921: Nearly 20,000 businesses fail and 3.5 million
Americans are out of work; Boll weevils cut cotton
production in Georgia and South Carolina in half.
1922: The Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act returns tariffs
to higher levels and gives the president the power to
raise or lower duties by 50 percent to equalize production costs; a six-month strike by coal miners to
protest wage cuts cripples U.S. industries reliant on
coal and leads to a period of chronic depression in
the coal mining industry, whose operators resort to
cutthroat competition to remain in business; the first
paid radio commercial airs, setting the pattern for
private control of radio airwaves.
1926: Scheduled airline service begins for the first time.
1929: The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches 381.17
up from 88 in 1924, but it crashes on October 29; a
record 16.4 million shares are traded, the Dow plummets 30.57 points, speculators that bought on margin are forced to sell, and almost $30 billion disappears, sending the United States into the worst
economic depression in history.
1930: Stock prices regain some of their losses, but investors fearing a business depression continually
lower prices; the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Bill raises tariffs to their highest level in history, and other countries raise their tariffs in response; a general world
economic depression begins, U.S. unemployment
reaches 4.5 million, and more than 1,300 banks close.
1931: The U.S. wheat crop breaks all records, driving
down prices and leading to many farmers being
forced off their farms as banks foreclose on their
property.
1932: The average weekly wage falls from $28 to $17
in 1929; 21,000 businesses go bankrupt, 1,616 banks
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close, and industrial production drops to one-third
the 1929 level; the Dow Jones Industrial Average
reaches its low point of 41.22; Congress enacts a
Reconstruction Finance Corp. with the power to lend
$1.8 billion to the states to finance industry and agriculture; Congress passes a Home Loan Act that will
lend money to mortgage loan institutions to rescue
banks being forced to close; unemployment reaches
17 million.
1933: The Emergency Banking Act gives the president
control over banking transactions and foreign exchange and forbids exporting of gold; President F.
Roosevelt declares a bank holiday and only authorizes banks to reopen after an examiner has determined them solvent; all private gold holdings are required to be turned over to federal reserves in
exchange for coin or currency; the United States
abandons the gold standard; the Glass-Steagall Act
forbids banks to deal in stocks and bonds and insures bank deposits; a National Industrial Recovery
Act provides for codes of fair competition in industry and collective bargaining with labor; the unemployment rate peaks at 24.9 percent.
1934: The Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act passed by
Congress gives the president power to negotiate
trade pacts without consent of the Senate; the new
act replaces the high tariffs of the Smoot-Hawley
Act, believed to have contributed to the worldwide
depression; the nation’s first general strike starts in
San Francisco to show sympathy for a strike of
12,000 International Longshoremen’s Association
workers; the Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC) is created by Congress to limit bank credit
for speculators and to police the securities industry.
1935: An Emergency Relief Appropriations Act is
passed by Congress to provide work and employment by “providing useful projects”; the Federal Reserve System is reorganized and establishes an open
market committee to buy and sell government securities held by the Federal Reserve and thus control the money supply; a Federal Deposit Insurance
Corp. (FDIC) is developed with assistance from the
banks; the Committee for Industrial Organization
(CIO) is founded.
1936: The Robinson-Patman Act supplements the Clayton Antitrust Act by forbidding manufacturers to
practice price discrimination.
1938: The Fair Labor Standards Act limits working
hours in the first national attempt to set maximum
hours and minimum wages; the Dow Jones average
falls to 98.95 but regains to 158.41; the Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA) is created to regulate the
growing aviation industry; the Federal Trade Commission, through the Wheller-Lea Act, is given the
power to regulate advertising of food, drugs, cosmetics, and therapeutic devices.
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1940: The Export Control Act gives the president power
to halt or slow export of materials vital to U.S. defense; exports of aviation gas outside the Western
hemisphere, and export of scrap iron and steel to
Japan is embargoed.
1942: President Roosevelt calls for production of 60,000
planes, 45,000 tanks, 20,000 anti-aircraft guns, and
6 million tons of merchant shipping; the federal budget of $59 billion has $52 billion marked for the war
effort; an Emergency Price Control Act gives the
Office of Price Administration the power to control
prices; an order by the newly created Office of Economic Stabilization limits salaries to $25,000 per
year.
1944: A United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference establishes the International Bank for Reconstruction, which formulates a system, used until
1973, whereby every participating nation keeps its
currency within a few percentage points of an agreed
dollar value; the first automatic, general-purpose
computer, which takes 4 seconds to perform simple
multiplication and 11 seconds to perform simple division, is completed at Harvard University.
1946: The worst work stoppage since 1919 idles 4.6 million workers with a loss of 116 million man-days;
the Office of Economic Stabilization, shutdown after the World War II, is reinstated by President Truman to control inflation; ENIAC (electronic numerical integrator and computer) is the world’s first
electronic digital computer and is the first to use vacuum tubes instead of mechanical relays—its 18,000
vacuum tubes perform 4,500 additions per second.
1947: The Taft-Hartley Act restricts a labor union’s
power to strike, outlaws businesses that can only hire
union workers, introduces an 80-day waiting period
before a lockout or a strike can begin, and empowers the government to obtain injunctions if the strike
is detriment to national safety; the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) lowers tariff barriers significantly and helps revitalize world trade;
coal mines return to private ownership after being
run by federal government for the last year.
1948: The cost-of-living index reaches a record high as
does U.S. production, employment, and national income; President Truman orders the Army to operate the railroad to prevent a nationwide strike.
1950: The Celler-Kefauver Amendment to the Clayton
Antitrust Act curbs mergers of U.S. business firms
and stops companies from buying up stock in other
companies; the Revenue Act increases income and
corporation taxes; the Defense Production Act establishes a system of priorities for materials, provides for wage and price stabilization, and curbs installment buying.
1951: The Federal Reserve Board raises stock-purchase
margin requirements to discourage credit expansion;
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the Wage Stabilization Board freezes salaries and
wages.
1952: President Truman orders federal seizure of steel
mills to avoid a nationwide strike, but the Supreme
Court rules the seizure illegal and 600,000 CIO steel
workers go on strike; the railroads once again return
to private ownership after nearly two years of being
run by the federal troops.
1954: The Dow Jones average finally passes its 1929
high of 381 and closes the year above 404.
1955: The AF of L and CIO merge into the AFL-CIO.
1957: Senator Kefauver investigates the effect on consumers of increasing mergers by auto and steel makers, bread bakers, and pharmaceutical firms.
1959: The Landrum-Griffin Act requires labor unions to
file financial reports with the secretary of labor and
includes a labor Bill of Rights; the federal government gains an injunction against striking steel workers, a decision upheld by the Supreme Court; supermarkets account for 11 percent of food stores, but
69 percent of all food store sales.
1960: In an effort to curb a rising deficit in the U.S. balance of payments, President Eisenhower orders a reduction of government spending abroad; Eisenhower warns against the military-industrial complex
that maintains high levels of spending for defense.
1963: U.S. factory workers average more than $100 per
week for the first time in history.
1966: There are a record 2,377 corporate mergers in the
United States, up from 844 in 1960; Congress passes
the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, which calls for
clear labeling of the net weight of every package and
imposes controls over the confusing proliferation of
package sizes, but food continues to be sold in packages that make it difficult for consumers to determine the price per pound they are paying; many airline companies suffer financial losses because of
inability to fill seats on the new Boeing 747 jumbo
jets.
1967: The United Auto Workers quits the AFL-CIO,
charging a lack of leadership and organizing effort;
the record numbers of corporate mergers in the
United States continue to rise with 2,975 mergers
taking place; a U.S. Federal Meat Inspection Act
takes effect as the Pure Food and Drug act of 1906
is strengthened.
1968: Corporate mergers continue to rise as 4,462 take
place; Congress passes a Consumer Credit Protection Law requiring banks and other lending institutions to disclose clearly the true annual rate of interest and other financing costs on loans.
1969: Unemployment hits its lowest point in 15 years,
and the Dow Jones average rises above 1000 for the
first time in history, but does not hold.
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1970: The Dow Jones average bottoms out at 631 then
jumps 32.04 points, the largest one day jump ever
recorded; the Rail Passenger Service Act creates the
National Rail Passenger Corp. (Amtrak) to improve
U.S. rail travel.
that offers a bribe to a foreign government, political
party official, or political candidate; the Semiconductor Industry Association is formed to lobby
against government-subsidized Japanese efforts to
dominate the semiconductor industry.
1971: President Nixon imposes a freeze on wages and
prices, temporarily suspends conversion of dollars
into gold, and asks Congress to impose a 10-percent
surcharge to strengthen the dollar as the Vietnam
War pushes inflation up; in response to Nixon’s
news, the Dow Jones average makes a record oneday jump of 32.93 points; the AFL-CIO announces
it has no faith in Nixon’s plan and refuses to cooperate with the wage freeze; U.S. imports top exports
for the first time since 1888.
1978: President Carter announces a program of voluntary wage-price guidelines to curb the rising inflation; the Dow Jones Industrial Average sets another
one day record by jumping up 35.4 points; the
mandatory retirement age for workers is raised to 70.
1972: The Dow Jones average closes at 1003.16, the first
time it has ever closed above the 1000 mark; Soviet
grain buyers begin buying U.S. soy and wheat and
end up buying one quarter of the entire U.S. wheat
crop.
1973: Speculative selling of U.S. dollars on foreign exchanges devalues the dollar, and Secretary of the
Treasury George Schultz announces that the dollar
will be devalued by up to 10 percent against major
world currencies in an effort to make U.S. goods
more competitive in foreign trade; President Nixon
announces an embargo on exports of soybeans and
cottonseeds, which lasts only five days; buyers bid
up the prices of wheat as foreign buyers redouble
their purchase of U.S. grain in case further embargoes are issued; Arab nations begin cutting back oil
exports for political reasons.
1974: Economic recession hits the world following a
hike in oil prices by major petroleum producers in
the Middle East and a rising inflation rate; The Consumer Price Index rises a record 12.2 percent; the
Dow Jones average bottoms out at 570.01.
1975: Investors fail to take advantage of the first opportunity since 1933 to buy gold, driving the price
down by over $30 per ounce; Wall Street’s fixed
commission rate ends by order of the Securities and
Exchange Commission, leading to lower rates,
sometimes by as much as 90 percent, and forcing
many brokers and dealers out of business.
1976: Federal Trade Commission figures show that the
450 largest companies control 70 percent of U.S.
manufacturing assets and make 72 percent of the
profits; the Energy Policy and Conservation Act sets
gasoline mileage standards for cars, establishes petroleum reserves, and authorizes the president to develop contingency plans for future energy crises.
1977: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts pioneers the leveraged
buy-out, using high-yield junk bonds to finance
them; the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act provides for
severe penalties, including up five years in jail and
up to $1 million in fines, for any U.S. corporation
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1979: The Supreme Court rules that the valuation of
warehouse items may not be reduced for tax purposes unless it is disposed of or sold at reduced
prices; inflation continues to rise uncontrollably and
balloons 13.3 percent for the year, the largest jump
in 33 years; the Federal Reserve Board announces a
1-percent increase in the discount interest rate to
curb inflation; Wall Street reacts drastically to the
news, driving down the Dow Jones average by 26.48
points on the day of the announcement, starting a
small recession; Gold prices top $400 per ounce for
the first time in history as world markets react to
worries about inflation.
1980: Banks raise the prime loan rate, which fluctuates
between a low of 12.0 percent to a peak of 21.5 percent; President Carter places a partial embargo on
the export of grain to the Soviet Union in response
to the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan.
1982: Heavy tariffs are imposed on some steel imports
that are foreign government subsidized to help struggling U.S. steel mills; unemployment reaches 10.8
percent, the highest since 1940, and the number of
Americans living below the poverty line is the highest it’s been in 17 years; fax machines gain popularity as the time per page goes from 6 minutes to
20 seconds, bringing phone bills down for faxing.
1984: Economic growth rises at 6.8 percent, the biggest
in over 30 years, and the inflation rate drops to 3.7
percent, the lowest in 17 years, but budget and trade
deficits continue to rise to record levels.
1985: Corporate mergers and acquisitions continue to increase and 24 involve more than $1 billion each,
with junk bonds used to finance most takeovers;
world oil prices collapse, putting pressure on, and
in some cases closing, many banks and savings institutions in energy sector states.
1986: Congress restructures the federal tax system raising taxes on businesses, which in turn raise prices;
the Dow Jones average rises past 1900; the national
debt rises above $2 trillion for the first time in history; Wall Street continues to suffer from insider
trading scandals as Dennis B. Levine and Ivan F.
Boesky are both found guilty of trading on nonpublic information.
1987: The Dow Jones average peaks at 2722.42, sets a
one-day record rising 75.23 points, then plummets
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508 points, or 22 percent, in one day—a bigger oneday drop than the October 1929 crash; the AFL-CIO
allows the Brotherhood of Teamsters into the union.
1989: The Financial Institutions Rescue, Recovery and
Enforcement Act attempts to bail out the failed savings and loan institutions using tax dollars, but inadvertently jeopardizes commercial banks, and in
the end fails in its purpose; the Dow Jones average
drops 190.58 points in one day as junk bond financing of mergers and acquisitions shakes investors’ confidence, but prices rebound the following week and Dow Jones closes the year at
2753.
1990: The record eight-year economic boom ends and
the country goes into a recession; the Dow Jones
peaks at 2999.75, then drops to a low of 2365.10;
the Federal Reserve Board gives J.P. Morgan & Co.
the power to underwrite stocks, the first time a bank
has had that power since 1933.
1991: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above
3000 for the first time in history, but drops back
down amid reports that the recession is not over.
1992: The national debt tops $4 trillion, rising $2 trillion in just six years.
1993: The North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA) phases out tariffs and other trade barriers
between Canada, Mexico, and the United States, and
the agreement is passed despite severe opposition
from labor unions who claim it will take jobs into
other countries; the Revenue Reconciliation Act
C o m p a n y
P r o f i l e s
f o r
S t u d e n t s
o f
K e y
B u s i n e s s
E v e n t s
seeks to reduce the national deficit by nearly $500
billion through budget cuts and modest tax increases.
1994: The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT) is updated to extend patent protection and
strengthen anti-dumping laws and sanctions, as well
as new coverage for agriculture, textiles, services,
and intellectual property rights.
1996: The Telecommunications Act of 1996 deregulates
the telecommunications industry and allows any
communications company to compete in any market against any other company.
1997: The Dow Jones begins unprecedented growth,
growing nearly 1,500 points over five months to top
8000; the unemployment rate drops to 4.8 percent,
the lowest figure since before the Great Depression.
1998: The Asian economic crisis begins to spread
throughout the world with Japan, China, Russia, and
eastern Europe suffering from severe depressions,
which threaten to spread to outlying regions in Asia,
western Europe, and North America; to keep the
economy strong in the United States, the Federal Reserve drops the federal funds rate to 5.25 from 5.50
percent; Wall Street begins to see results of the crisis and, as of October, the Dow Jones average drops
from a high of 9337 to a low of 7539, including a
response to the federal funds cut with two one-day
drops in a row of 237.9 points and 208.8 points;
crude oil prices drop from $17.78 per barrel in 1997
to a low of $11.36, leading many oil companies to
begin mass layoffs.
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