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Quote of the Day
“So you do get an occasional opportunity to get into a wonderful business that’s being run by a wonderful manager. And, of course, that’s hog heaven day. If you don’t load up when you get those opportunities, it’s a big mistake. Occasionally, you’ll find a human being who’s so talented that he can do things that ordinary skilled mortals can’t. I would argue that Simon Marks—who was second generation in Marks & Spencer of England—was such a man. Patterson was such a man at National Cash Register. And Sam Walton was such a man. These people do come along—and in many cases, they’re not all that hard to identify. If they’ve got a reasonable hand—with the fanaticism and intelligence and so on that these people generally bring to the party—then management can matter much”
– Charles Munger
January 31st – This Day in Stock Market History
January 31st, 2006 – The Senate approves Ben Bernanke as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Bernanke’s tenure of 2006 through 2014 saw the nation through it’s worst financial crisis since the great depression. Bernanke, who was a student of the Great Depression and the failures of the Federal Reserve at the time, acting strongly to prevent a repeat in 2008. Under his guidance the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates from 5.25% down to 0%, initiated Quantitative Easing (QE), the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), and bailouts of some of America’s largest financial companies.
Bernanke took over from Alan Greenspan, and was succeeded by Janet Yellen.
Bernanke has since written a memoir on the financial crisis:The Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath
Best January 31st in Dow Jones Industrial Average History
1918 – Up 3.66%, 2.82 points.
Worst January 31st in Dow Jones Industrial Average History
1934 – Down 1.62%, 1.77 points.
Read of the Day
For those interested in a more in depth look at the workings of the Federal Reserve system, Ben Bernanke briefly took up blogging after his run as the chairman of the Fed:
<– Go To Previous Day: January 30th: 1882, first cash register patented. 2003, AOL reports $98.7 Billion loss.