ABSTRACT
Between July 1990 and March 1991 the US economy underwent a recession, which economists attributed variously to the savings and loan implosion and the burst of the real-estate bubble, the high-interest policy from 1986 to 1989, and the Kuwait War oil-price increase in 1990. The Mexican tequila crisis of 1994, the Far East financial crisis of 1997, and the Russian default of 1998 called for coordinated emergency solutions led by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the US Treasury to provide liquidity to emerging markets and to stabilize global markets. In 1968 the government spun off the Government National Mortgage Association from Fannie Mae and converted Fannie Mae into a private corporation that was fully owned by shareholders. Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM) was a very high-profile hedge-fund company founded by John Meriwether, formerly a star trader and vice-chairman at Salomon Brothers.
