September's Other Infamous Anniversary

It has become a tradition, and rightly so. Every year as summer shows signs of receding into fall, millions of Americans take time out to participate in somber remembrances, such as holding moments of silence, reciting victims' names, and displaying U.S. flags at half staff, to commemorate the horrific tragedy of September 11th, 2001. It's been a dozen years since those attacks, but I, along with the vast majority of folks who are old enough can still remember where they were and what they were doing on that awful day.

However, another September anniversary of an event that had dire consequences for this country is about to pass. While not as lethal as the 9-11 attacks, the catastrophic meltdown of the nation's financial markets began emerging this week five years ago on September 15th, 2008. Investment bank Lehman Brothers initiated the downward spiral by declaring bankruptcy, the news of which sent Wall Street scrambling even before the markets opened.

Panic ensued that week as more financial institutions, such as Merrill Lynch, AIG, and Washington Mutual, faltered. By October, the stock market and the economy, in general, were in free fall.

This meltdown, arising from years of reckless and predatory lending practices, led to what is now known as the Great Recession. It proved to be the worst economic contraction since the Great Depression of the 1930's, and many economic analysts from around the world believed that it helped, in part, lead the United States to electing its first African-American president.

Of course, the meltdown's fallout went far beyond electoral politics. The American middle class lost nearly 40 percent of its wealth. Their median net worth - the value of assets such as homes, automobiles and stocks minus any debt - suffered the biggest drops. The Federal Reserve reports that the median net worth for a middle class family plunged from $126,000 dollars in 2007 to just $77,000 in 2010. (By contrast, the wealthiest families' median net worth rose slightly during the same time.)

This loss of wealth was due, in part, to the unexpected loss of income resulting from skyrocketing unemployment. Between October of 2008 and April of 2009, an average of 700,000 American workers lost their jobs each month, which contributed to the largest sustained increase in unemployment since the Great Depression.

Since the automotive industry was especially hard hit, the impact of these massive job cuts weren't lost on me. My employer at the time, automotive brake manufacturer Aisin Brake & Chassis, suffered debilitating layoffs, which resulted in ending my three-year stint there as a forklift operator.

While far from being out of the woods, our sputtering economy, for the time being, appears to be on the slow road to recovery. Many folks continue to debate over who and what is to blame and what policies to pursue. While worthy of discussion, I decided to save those topics for another blog post. My only intention, here, was simply to call attention to the anniversary of this memorable historical happening in our not so distant past.