The Worst Financial Crises In History

The Great Depression (1929-1939)

Notable Effect: Stock market crashes, unemployment hits all-time high

1973 oil crisis

Notable Effect: gas prices skyrocket, fuel rationing occurs, resulting in long

gas lines

Asian Financial Crisis (1997)

Notable Effect: Asian Economy destabilized, prompting fears of

destabilization in the world economy

Ruble Crisis (1997)

Notable Effect: Inflation of the Russian Ruble increased dramatically, massive shortages of basic resources like food

Dot Com Bust (1999)

Notable Effect: Dozens of overfunded dot coms fail to make a profit and close their doors

Enron Crisis (2000)

Notable Effect: Enron employees lose all their savings, a few

Enron executives are prosecuted for fraud

Sub-prime mortgage crisis (2006)

Notable Effect: massive amounts of sub-prime loan defaults do major

damage to American housing market

AIG Collapse (2008)

Notable Effect: Largest stock market plummet since The Great Depression, government forced to subsidize AIG