2008 Year in Review

January 1, 2008 spouse and I met Hurricane (college nickname) and her husband @ Willie's Sports Bar to watch bowl games. They have 3 year old triplets and live in Pennsylvania so we don't see them often. It was fun. 2008 was an eventful, tumultuous year. Here is some of the events that happened (source = Wikipedia). 1/2/08 Crude oil shot to $100 / barrel. (Peaked at $146 / barrel on 7/11/08 and back to $40/ barrel on 12/29/08). 1/3/08 China allows academics to own patents. 1/21/08 2008 stock market downturn. "Stock markets around the world plunge amid growing fears of a US recession, fueld by the 2007 subprime mortgage financial crisis." 1/28/08 Inflation in Zimbabwe rises to about 150,000% making their currency "essentially worthless." 2/3/08 Super Bowl XLII NY Giants defeat New England Partriots. 2/7/08 Paintings by Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet are stole from a museum in Zurich. 2/13/08 US Senate passes legislation to ban CIA from using certain interrogation methods including waterboarding. 2/16/08 Brown Pelican delisted from endangered list. 2/19/08 Fidel Castro retires as President of Cuba after 49 years in office. 2/24/08 Oscars: Edith Piat wins Best Actress for La Vie en Rose, Daniel Day-Lewis wins Best Actor for There Will Be Blood, No Country For Old Men wins Best Movie and the Coen Brothers win for Directing. 2/27/08 Earthquake hits England, 5.2 on richter scale. 3/2/08 Russian voters elect Dimtry Medvedev President of Russia. 3/5/08 Forbes Magazine names Warren Buffett richest man in the world. 3/7/08 US Dept. of Labor reports US econmy lost 63,000 jobs in February 08. 3/8/08 Vietnam bans ownership of pet hamsters. 3/12/08 The last veteran of WWI, Lazare Ponticelli (Italian) died at 110 years old. 3/12/08 Governor Eliot Spitzer resigns amid prostitution scandal. Replaced by David Patterson. 3/23/08 US military casualties reach 4,000 in the Iraq War. 3/24/08 Olympic Flame of 2008 Summer Olympics is lit in Olympia, Greece. 4/2/08 George Bush supports bids by Georgia and Ukraine to become members of NATO. 4/2/08 Cuban citizens now have access to former "tourist only" hotels and cellphones. 4/11/08 President Raul Castro allows thousands of renters to gain title to their own homes. 4/14/08 US begins occupying it's $736 M embassyin Iraq, one of the largest in the world. 4/18/08 A magnitude 5.2 earthquake occurs at 4:37 CST in Illinois. We felt a small shaking in Cincinnati. It felt like someone was walking on our roof. 4/29/08 S&P index announces US home prices dropped about 13% from Feb 07 to Feb 08. 5/2/08 Olympic flame reaches Chinese soil. 5/3/08 Big Brown wins 2008 Kentucky Derby. Eight Belles (sole filly in race) collapes after finishing 2nd and is euthanized. 5/6/08 Cyclone Nargis hits Myanmar (formerly Burma) killing 49,000. 5/12/08 Sichuan is hit with 7.9 richter earthquake. 88,000 killed and 5M displaced. 5/25/08 New Zealander Scott Dixon wins Indy 500. 5/26/08 China relaxes its one child policy to allow parents of children kill in 2008 Sichuan earthquake to have another child. 5/28/08 Engineers announce Leaning Tower of Pisa has been stabilized for 1st time and will remain stable for next 200 years. 5/28/08 NY Governor Patterson directs NY State agencies to recognize gay marrriages performed in other jurisdictions (ie. Canada, CA & MA) 6/9/08 McDonalds stops serving sliced tomatoes on its burgers in US following salmonella outbreak thought to be linked to tomatoes. 6/11/08 Cuba introduces wage systems where workers are paid on productivity rather than job description. 6/11/08 Norway legalizes gay marriage. 6/13/08 Nouri al-Maliki, Prime Minister of Iraq, states talks with US on long term security have reached "a dead end". 6/15/08 Harmid Karzai (Afghanistan President) warns Taliban he will send forces into Pakistan in order to pursue militants. 6/16/08 Tiger Woods wins 2008 US Open 6/17/08 Boston Celtics defeat LA Lakers to win 2008 NBA Finals 6/25/08 China reopens Tibet to foreign tourist as a ban imposed during the Tibetan unrest is lifted. 6/27/08 Bill Gates (Microsoft co-founder) leaves company to start full time philanthropic work for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 7/2/08 Ingrid Betancourt, held captive by FARC guerillas for 6 years is rescued in an operation by the Colombian government. 3 American hostages also rescued. 7/5/08 Venus Williams beats her sister Serena to win Wimbledon 7-5, 6-4. 7/6/08 Rafael Nadar (Spain) wins 2008 Wimbledon Men's Final. 7/10/08 The Capitoline Wolf, a statue once thought to be Estruscan (one of the icons of the founding of Rome 5 BCE)is not. Radiocarbon dating shows probably 13th century. 7/10/08 Salman Rushdie ears Man Booker Prize for Midnights Children. 7/11/08 Chinese restaurants in Beijing are told not to serve dog meat during 2008 Summer Olympics, but the can continue to serve Donkey meat. 7/12/08 Tony Snow (b. 1955), American Political Commentator dies. 7/27/08 Carlos Sastre of Spain wins 2008 Tour de France. 7/29/08 The IOC lifts its ban on Iraqi athletes participation in the Beijing Olympic following assurances from the government of Iraq about the independence of Iraqi Olympic Committee. 7/30/08 US FDA finds cause for salmonella scare was serrano peppers from one farm in Mexico. 8/1/08 US unemployment hits 4 year high of 5.6%. 8/8/08 Beijing Olympics begins. 8/8/08 Russia brings tanks to border with Georgia (2008 South Ossetia War) 8/23/08 Russia says it pulled out os Ossetia 8/24/08 Summer Olympics concludes. 8/26/08 - 8/30/08 Hurricane Gustav hit Haiti, then Jamaia, then Cuba and heads toward New Orleans. 9/7/08 Hurrican Ike destroys 80% of Turks & Caicos islands. 9/7/08 US governmetn places mortgage financing companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in conservatorship. The Fereral Housing Financing Agency will manage the companies on a temporary basis. 9/8/08 Roger Federer wins US Tennins Open for a record breaking 5th consecutive time. 9/9/08 Bush pledges sending 4,500 troops to Afghanistan in next coupld months and orders 8,000 troops home from Irag by Feb 2009. 9/11/08 Officials order evacuation of Galveston, TX before Hurricane Ike makes landfall next week. 9/13/08 Ike hits Galveston (Cat 2) and Bush declares it a disaster zone. 9/15/08 Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection. 9/15/08 Bush tells Americans they will feel a "pinch" from rising costs due to Hurricane Ike. 9/18/08 The SEC declares on emergency ban on short selling financial-sector stocks. 9/22/08 Radiocardon dating estimates Stonehenge was constructed around 2300 BC. 9/24/08 Bush warns Americans that the US faces a "long and painful recession" if the Paulson Plan is not passed. 9/24/08 Senator John McCain postpones his presidential campaigns and wants to cancel 3rd debate to return to DC to work on Paulson Plan. 9/26/08 Paul Newman (b. 1925) American Actor dies. 10/1/08 US Army General David McKiernana, NATO Commander of forces in Afghanistan, says greater military prescence "needed as quickly as possible." 10/2/08 Gwen Ifill moderates 1st and only scheduled debate between US VP candidates Sarah Palin and Joe Biden. 10/3/08 Bush signs $700,000,000,000 bailout bill after it passes in the House. 10/9/08 NATO commander US Army Bantz Craddock asks member countries for authority to target drug trade in Afghanistan. 10/10/08 Fears of a global recessions send Asian stock markets tumbling. 10/14/08 Indian novelist Aranid Adige wins the Man Booker Prize for The White Tiger. 10/15/08 US retail sales dip 1.2% in Sept 08 for the 3rd consecutive month in row. Further evidence US is in recession. 10/16/08 Earthquak (6.5 richter) hits Guatemala and Mexico. 10/27/08 Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens is found quilty on all 7 counts of lying on US Senate financial documents. 10/27/08 Washington DC Metro announces it will randomly search backpack, sgym bags, and any other container that riders carry on the bus and rail systems during periods of increased threats. 10/28/08 Philadelphia Phillies win 2008 World Series. 10/31/08 Studs Turkel (b. 1912) American Author dies. 11/4/08 US elects Barack Obama 44th President of the United States and Joe Biden the 47th Vice President. 11/7/08 A doctored photo of North Kroea King Kim Jong-il, release a day earlier renews speculation about the leaders health. 11/11/08 The RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 departs on last voyage from Southampton UK to Dubai, UA. She will become a floating hotel. 11/20/08 Global Crisis of 2008: Auto Executives (Ford, GM and Chrysler) testify before Congress for a bailout package. 11/21/08 Malaysia bans the practice of yoga by Muslims. 11/24/08 Citigroup receives $32B bailout money. 11/26/08 At least 80 people killed and over 250 wounded in coordinated terrorist strike across Mumbai, India. 11/29/08 2008 Mumbai Attacks: death toll rises to 160 with 327 people still missing. 12/9/08 Democrat Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is arrested by FBI at his Chicago home on allegations of corruption and pay-to-play regarding replacement for President-elect Barack Obama's senate seat. 12/10/08 White House and Congress agree on $15B bailout package for big three auto companies. 12/12/08 The United Nations Security Council finds that Rwanda nad Republic of Congo are using child soldiers to figt a proxy war (when 2 powers use 3rd parties as substitutes for fighting). 12/27/08 Israel launches Operation Cast Lead against Hamas in the Gaza strip, killing at least 271 people and wounding at least 800. 12/31/08 Israel rejects a proposed stoppage of Operation Cast Lead that would also have stsopped rocket attacks from Hamas so that humanitarian aid could be delivered. Tonight in a report 2008 on the News Hour tonight experts stated the following recap: 1. Predict the future American economy will not be driven by borrowing and consumption as it has in the past 50 years. 2. Who is to blame? Lots of people... regulators, credit raters, lenders and individuals who borrowed more than they could afford. We were all living beyond our means. 3. One of the lessons we have learned we can not trust the markets to self regulate and our whole attitude of financial risk will be forever changed. 4. There was somem disagreement on the predicted global implications. One expert felt this will increase protectionism (possible tariffs, etc.) and that we may be 1/2 through the recession and should expect markets to improve 6-8 months before end. 5. One expert pointed out this is the first economic crisis made in America and spread to the rest of the world. Obviously weakening democracy stance. 6. Many believe the US Presidential Election was decided the 1st 3 weeks of September when Americans became more concerned with the economy. Earlier the wars and national security were believed to be Americans biggest concern.