Those companies were a bit unstable, always leading the way up or down.
Those companies helped establish the stock market, so their stocks had special importance.
The Stocks of companies like General Electric, Western Union and United States Steel, were hit so hard by the drop because those companies were among the country’s strongest stocks. These companies were leaders of the stock market and everyone was interested in buying or investing only in these companies.
This was the reason that these companies or ‘Market leaders’ hard hit the stock exchange market. The New York Exchange is also known as “The Big Board” is the largest stock exchange market of the world by market capitalization of its listed companies at US$30.1 trillion by February 2018.
A. those countries were among the country's strongest stocks
King Nebuchadnezzar II (634-562 BCE) was the greatest king of ancient Babylon, succeeding his father, Nabopolassar. King Nabopolassar had defeated the Assyrians with the help of the Medes and liberated Babylonia from Assyrian rule. In this way he provided for his son (as Philip II would do for his son Alexander later) a stable base and ample wealth on which to build; an opportunity for greatness which Nebuchadnezzar took full advantage of. He married Amytis of Media (630-565 BCE) and so secured an alliance between the Medes and the Babylonians (Amytis being the daughter or granddaughter of Cyaxerxes, the king of the Medes) and, according to some sources, had the Hanging Gardens of Babylon built for her to remind her of her homeland in Persia.
Upon ascending to the throne, Nebuchadnezzar spoke to the gods, in his inaugural address, saying, “O merciful Marduk, may the house that I have built endure forever, may I be satiated with its splendor, attain old age therein, with abundant offspring, and receive therein tribute of the kings of all regions, from all mankind” and it would seem the gods heard his prayer in that, under his reign, Babylon became the most powerful city-state in the region and Nebuchadnezzar II himself the greatest warrior-king and ruler in the known world. He is portrayed in unflattering light in the Bible, most notably in the Book of Daniel and the Book of Jeremiah (where he is seen as an 'enemy of God’ and one whom the deity of the Israelites intends to make an example of or, conversely, the agent of God used as a scourge against the faithless followers of Yahweh). Those portraits notwithstanding, Nebuchadnezzar II was most certainly responsible for the so-called Babylonian Exile of the Jews and, so, for the formation of modern-day Judaism (in that, the temple destroyed, the Priestly class of the Levites of the Jews had to re-create their religion “in a foreign land” as recounted famously in Psalm 137 from the Bible, and elsewhere).
Nebuchadnezzar II defeated the Egyptians and their allies the Assyrians at Carchemish, subdued Palestine and the region of Syria and, consolidating his power, controlled all the trade routes across Mesopotamia from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. Remaining true to the vision of his inaugural address, the great king spent the tolls he collected and the taxes he gathered in creating a city which, he hoped, would be recognized as a wonder of the world (and, indeed, his hopes were realized in later writers adding the walls of Babylon and, in particular, the Ishtar gate to the list of the Seven Wonders of the World). In the forty-three years of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar II made the most of the time employing a vast army of slave labor to surround his city with walls so thick that chariot races were conducted around the tops and which stretched fifty-six miles in length, encircling an area of two hundred square miles. The bricks of the walls were faced with a bright blue and bore the inscription, “I am Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon.”
A majority of the German people had no idea about the extermination of Jews, The Gestapo and SS told the public that the Jews were simply being relocated and that they would work for the state. Only the higher ups and official members of the SS or Nazi party new about the work camps and concentration camps.
*The picture is not political and is for educational purposes only*
Basil was the son of Romanus II and Theophano and was crowned co-emperor with his brother Constantine in 960, but as minors both he and his brother remained in the background. After their father’s death in 963, the government was effectively undertaken by the senior military emperors, first by Nicephorus II Phocas, their stepfather, and then by John I Tzimisces. On the latter’s death (976) the powerful great-uncle of Basil II, the eunuch Basil the chamberlain, took control. His authority—and that of Basil II—was challenged by two generals who coveted the position of senior emperor. Both related to emperors, they belonged to powerful landed families and commanded outside support from Georgia and from the Caliph in Baghdad. After a prolonged struggle both were defeated by 989, though only with the help of Russians under Vladimir of Kiev, who was rewarded with the hand of Basil II’s sister Anna on condition that the Kievan state adopted Christianity. Certain Russian soldiers remained in Basil II’s service, forming the famous imperial Varangian guard. Eventually, Basil II asserted his claim to sole authority by ruthlessly eliminating the dominating grand chamberlain, who was exiled in 985.
Basil II aimed solely at the extension and consolidation of imperial authority at home and abroad. The main fields of external conflict were in Syria, Armenia, and Georgia on the eastern front, in the Balkans, and in southern Italy. He maintained the Byzantine position in Syria against aggression stirred up by the Fāṭimid dynasty in Egypt and on occasion made forced marches from Constantinople across Asia Minor to relieve Antioch. By aggression and by diplomacy he secured land from Georgia and from Armenia, with the promise of more to come on the death of the Armenian ruler. He is, however, best known for his persistent and ultimately successful campaigns against a revived Bulgarian kingdom under its tsar Samuel. This ruler centred his activities in Macedonia and established his hegemony in the west Balkans. From 986 until 1014 there was warfare between Byzantium and Bulgaria, interrupted from time to time by Basil II’s intermittent expeditions to settle crises on the eastern front. Basil II enlisted Venetian help in protecting the Dalmatian coast and Adriatic waters from Bulgarian aggression. Year by year he slowly penetrated into Samuel’s territory, campaigning in winter as well as summer. Finally, holding northern and central Bulgaria, he advanced toward Samuel’s capital, Ochrida, and won the crushing victory that gave him his byname, “Slayer of the Bulgars.” It was then that he blinded the whole Bulgarian army, leaving one eye to each 100th man, so that the soldiers might be led back to their tsar (who died of shock shortly after seeing this terrible spectacle). Thus the revived Bulgarian kingdom was incorporated into the Byzantine Empire. Basil II then looked further west and planned to strengthen Byzantine control in southern Italy and to regain Sicily from the Arabs. He attempted to establish a Greek pope in Rome and to unite in marriage the German (though by birth half Byzantine) ruler Otto III with Basil II’s favourite niece, Zoe. Both schemes failed, but he was more successful in southern Italy, where order was restored, and at his death preparations were being made for the reconquest of Sicily.
The ruthlessness and tenacity that served Basil II in his military and diplomatic activities were displayed in his domestic policy as well. Its keynote was the strengthening of imperial authority by striking at his overpowerful subjects, particularly the military families who ruled like princes in Asia Minor. The by-product of this policy was the imperial protection of the small farmers, some of whom owed military service to the crown and paid taxes to the central exchequer. Title to land was rigorously inspected, and vast estates were arbitrarily confiscated. Thus, in spite of his costly wars, Basil left a full treasury, some of it stored in specially constructed underground chambers.
Both in near-contemporary history and in manuscript illustrations, Basil II is pictured as a short, well-proportioned figure, with brilliant light-blue eyes, a round face, and full, bushy whiskers, which he would twirl in his fingers when angry or while giving an audience.