The 1980s Business and the Economy: Chronology

1980:     March The banking industry is deregulated.

1980:     June The U.S. Congress passes the Motor Carrier Act, deregulating the trucking industry.

1981:     February 5 President Ronald Reagan makes his first televised address as U.S. president, asking for cuts in the income tax and in government spending.

1981:     March 28 After reaching a high of forty dollars per ounce in January, and a low of four dollars, the price of silver stabilizes at twelve dollars per ounce.

1981:     August 3 Rejecting the terms of a government contract, members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization go on strike. Two days later, Reagan fires more than eleven thousand air traffic controllers.

1982:      The U.S. Congress deregulates the savings and loan industry.

1982:      U.S. Secretary of the Interior James Watt opens one billion acres of American coastline to oil and gas drilling.

1982:     July The U.S. poverty rate is reported at 14 percent, the highest rate since 1967.

1983:     January U.S. unemployment figures show more than 11.5 million Americans unemployed. By the end of the year, that estimate triples.

1983:     April 20 President Reagan signs Social Security legislation designed to keep the system out of debt for the next seventy-five years.

1983:     November Drexel Burnham Lambert executive Michael Milken develops the idea of using high-yield "junk" bonds. Many savings and loan institutions begin buying these types of bonds.

1984:      The Hewlett-Packard Company introduces the laptop computer.

1984:      The computer operating system MS-DOS, developed by the Microsoft Corporation for IBM, is used in two million computers and in more than 90 percent of IBM personal computers and compatible equipment.

1985:      A record 43,000 farms go bankrupt as land prices fall and interest rates soar.

1985:      Many banks and saving and loan institutions go bankrupt in Texas, Oklahoma, and other oil states that are pressured by collapsing world oil prices.

1985:     April 23 Coca-Cola announces that it is replacing its ninety-nine-year-old formula with a sweeter-tasting formula. Protests quickly convince the company to reintroduce the old formula under the name Coca-Cola Classic just a few months later.

1985:     September 16 The U.S. Department of Commerce announces that the United States has become a debtor nation for the first time since 1914.

1986:      Microsoft Corporation goes public.

1986:      The total value of farmland in the United States drops to $392 billion, approximately half its estimated value in 1980.

1986:     November 14 Wall Street businessman Ivan Boesky plea bargains with government officials, admitting he had bought stock after receiving tips about forthcoming merger bids. The day becomes known as "Boesky Day" among inside traders.

1987:     January The U.S. Commerce Department predicts that technology companies will produce more than other manufacturing companies.

1987:     August 10 In one of the largest leveraged buyouts in the decade, the TLC Group acquires Beatrice International Foods for $985 million, making TLC the largest black-owned firm in America.

1987:     December The U.S. international debt reaches $368 billion.

1988:      The number of millionaires living in the United States rises from 574,000 in 1980 to 1.3 million, and this number includes at least 50 billionaires.

1988:      Prices of farmland begin to rise, aiding a recovery in the economy of the Midwest. Large farms begin to replace smaller, family-owned farms.

1988:      As saving and loan institutions overextend their credits, experts estimate that $200 billion is needed to bail them out.

1989:     January 20 The day George Bush takes the oath of office as president, the national debt stands at $2.68 trillion, more than 2.6 times the figure reported in 1980.

1989:     October 31 The first increase in the minimum wage since 1981 is announced. The wage is to rise from $3.35 per hour to $3.80 beginning April 1, 1990.