A Brief Tour of American-Induced Financial Calamities

A Legacy of High-Flying Hubris and Hard Landings

Let’s be clear about one thing: the stock market doesn’t care who’s president—until it does. And when it does, Republican administrations seem to have a peculiar knack for presiding over financial disasters the way I preside over a free bar at a wedding: with great gusto, followed by a lot of regret.

The GOP has a storied history of economic booms that end like a champagne cork hitting the ceiling—spectacularly, and with lots of collateral damage. The damage usually occurs to the ordinary person on the street, not just in New York or California, but in Dublin, Rome and London. Because when the United States economy becomes sick, the rest of the world gets sick also.

1. The Panic of 1907 (Theodore Roosevelt)
Teddy Roosevelt was too busy breaking up monopolies and wrestling bears to notice the financial system collapsing around him. Some speculators tried to corner the copper market (because nothing says "sound investment strategy" like betting everything on a single metal), and suddenly …