Bush signs historic financial
bailout plan into law

  

U.S. House approves historic financial bailout plan

    WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday approved a revised 700 billion dollars bailout plan, authorizing the government the largest financial intervention since the Great Depression.Full story

U.S. Senate approves bailout plan

    WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Senate on Wednesday approved a revised 700-billion-dollar bailout plan, which will authorize the U.S. government the largest financial intervention since the Great Depression.
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Bush:  damage to economy "painful" if Congress fails to pass bailout bill

    WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President George W. Bush warned Tuesday that the damage to the nation's economy will be "painful and lasting" if Congress fails to act to rescue markets.
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Timeline of U.S. financial crisis

Feb. 7, 2007 - HSBC announces it will see larger than anticipated losses from rising defaults of subprime mortgages in the United States, the first major bank to make an announcement about rising losses in the sector.

April 2, 2007 - New Century Financial, one of American largest subprime mortgage lenders, files for bankruptcy court protections.

June 2007 - Two hedge funds run by Bear Stearns run into large losses and are forced to dump assets.

March 16, 2008 - JPMorgan Chase & Co. acquires troubled Bear Stearns.

Sept. 6, 2008 - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announces a takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, putting the government in charge of the two mortgage giants.

Sept. 15, 2008 - Bank of America agrees to acquire Merrill Lynch for up to $50 billion.

Sept. 15, 2008 - Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy court protection.

Sept. 17 - The U.S. Federal Reserve Bank will lend an 85 billion-U.S. dollar-bridge-loan to American International Group Inc. (AIG) to save the country's biggest insurer from bankruptcy.

Sept. 25 - JPMorgan Chase on Thursday night acquired the banking operations of Washington Mutual Bank.

Wall Street's Investment Banks Collapse

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley to become bank holding companies

¡¡WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Federal Reserve said Sunday it has approved a request by two U.S. major investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to become bank holding companies.
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Bank of America acquires Merrill for $44 billion

    NEW YORK, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Merrill Lynch & Co., the third largest U.S. investment bank, agreed late Sunday to sell itself to Bank of America Corp. for roughly 44 billion U.S. dollars. 
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Barclays walks away from talks on buying Lehman Brothers

    BEIJING, Sept. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- Barclays, UK's third largest bank, Sunday withdrew its bid to buy investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., U.S. media reports said.  Full story

The fall of Bear Stearns

    BEIJING, March 21 -- This week, the crisis in credit markets claimed Bear Stearns. The eighty-five year old investment bank in New York agreed on Sunday to sell itself to J.P. Morgan Chase. The problems largely involved short-term loans, called repo borrowings, that are secured by assets like securities.

WaMu,Fannie, Freddie, AIG

WaMu collapse: Biggest in United States history

U.S. gov't takes over Fannie, Freddie

Fed puts up $85 bln loan to rescue AIG

News Analysis

EU unlikely to model U.S. 

    As the United States finally adopted the 700-U.S. billion-dollar bailout plan Friday in efforts to cope with the escalating financial crisis, a divided European Union (EU) is unlikely to follow suit. Full story

High-stake politics of bailout plan

    Under the present political climate, the issue is far more than an economic decision the country has to make, and high-stake bipartisan politics are being intensely played out and will determine the outcome of the bailout debate. Full story