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Wall Street

Wall Street is a street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs eight city blocks between Broadway in the west and South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, the American financial services industry, New York–based financial interests, or the Financial District itself. Anchored by Wall Street, New York has been described as the world's principal fintech and financial center.

The street was originally known in Dutch as Het Cingel ("the Belt") when it was part of New Amsterdam during the 17th century. An actual city wall existed on the street from 1653 to 1699, and during the 18th century, the location served as a slave market and securities trading site, and from 1703 onwards the location of New York's first city hall, later known as Federal Hall. In the early 19th century, both residences and businesses occupied the area, but increasingly the latter predominated, and New York's financial industry became centered on Wall Street. During the 20th century, several early skyscrapers were built on Wall Street, including 40 Wall Street, once the world's tallest building.

The Wall Street area is home to the New York Stock Exchange, the world's largest stock exchange by total market capitalization, as well as the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and several commercial banks and insurance companies. Several other stock and commodity exchanges have also been located in Lower Manhattan near Wall Street, including the New York Mercantile Exchange and other commodity futures exchanges, along with the NYSE American. To support the business they did on the exchanges, many brokerage firms owned offices nearby. The direct economic impacts of Wall Street activities extend worldwide.

Wall Street itself is a narrow and winding street running from the East River to Broadway and lined with skyscrapers, as well as the New York Stock Exchange Building, the Federal Hall and 1 Wall Street at its western end. The street is near multiple New York City Subway stations, ferry terminals, and the World Trade Center site.

Early years

In the original records of New Amsterdam, the Dutch always called the street Het Cingel ("the Belt"), which was also the name of the original outer barrier street, wall, and canal of Amsterdam. After the English conquest of New Netherland in 1664, they renamed the settlement "New York" and in tax records from April 1665 (still in Dutch) they refer to the street as Het Cingel ofte Stadt Wall ("the Belt or the City Wall"). This use of both names for the street also appears as late as 1691 on the Miller Plan of New York. New York Governor Thomas Dongan may have issued the first official designation of Wall Street in 1686, the same year he issued a new charter for New York. Confusion over the origins of the name Wall Street appeared in modern times because in the 19th and early 20th century some historians mistakenly thought the Dutch had called it "de Waal Straat", which to Dutch ears sounds like Walloon Street. However, in 17th century New Amsterdam, de Waal Straat (Wharf or Dock Street) was a section of what is today's Pearl Street.

The original wall was constructed under orders from Director General of the Dutch West India Company, Peter Stuyvesant, at the start of the first Anglo-Dutch war soon after New Amsterdam was incorporated in 1653. Fearing an over land invasion of English troops from the colonies in New England (at the time Manhattan was easily accessible by land because the Harlem Ship Canal had not been dug), he ordered a ditch and wooden palisade to be constructed on the northern boundary of the New Amsterdam settlement. The wall was built of dirt and 15 ft wooden planks, measuring 2,340 ft long and 9 ft tall and was built using the labor of both Black slaves and white colonists. In fact Stuyvesant had ordered that "the citizens, without exception, shall work on the constructions… by immediately digging a ditch from the East River to the North River, 4 to 5 feet deep and 11 to 12 feet wide..." And that "the soldiers and other servants of the Company, together with the free Negroes, no one excepted, shall complete the work on the fort by constructing a breastwork, and the farmers are to be summoned to haul the sod."

The first Anglo-Dutch War ended in 1654 without hostilities in New Amsterdam, but over time the "werken" (meaning the works or city fortifications) were reinforced and expanded to protect against potential incursions from Native Americans, pirates, and the English. The English also expanded and improved the wall after their 1664 takeover (a cause of the Second Anglo-Dutch War), as did the Dutch from 1673 to 1674 when they briefly retook the city during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, and by the late 1600s the wall encircled most of the city and had two large stone bastions on the northern side. The Dutch named these bastions "Hollandia" and "Zeelandia" after the ships that carried their invasion force. The wall started at Hanover Square on Pearl Street, which was the shoreline at that time, crossed the Indian path that the Dutch called Heeren Wegh, now called Broadway, and ended at the other shoreline (today's Trinity Place), where it took a turn south and ran along the shore until it ended at the old fort. There was a gate at Broadway (the "Land Gate") and another at Pearl Street, the "Water Gate." The wall and its fortifications were eventually removed in 1699—it had outlived its usefulness because the city had grown well beyond the wall. A new City Hall was built at Wall and Nassau in 1700 using the stones from the bastions as materials for the foundation.

Slavery had been introduced to Manhattan in 1626, but it was not until December 13, 1711, that the New York City Common Council made a market at the foot of Wall Street the city's first official slave market for the sale and rental of enslaved Black people and Indians. The market operated from 1711 to 1762 at the corner of Wall and Pearl Streets, and consisted of a wooden structure with a roof and open sides, although walls may have been added over the years; it could hold approximately 50 people. New York's municipal authorities directly benefited from the sale of slaves by implementing taxes on every person who was bought and sold there.

In these early days, local merchants and traders would gather at disparate spots to buy and sell shares and bonds, and over time divided themselves into two classes—auctioneers and dealers. In the late 18th century, there was a buttonwood tree at the foot of Wall Street under which traders and speculators would gather to trade securities. The benefit was being in proximity to each other. In 1792, traders formalized their association with the Buttonwood Agreement which was the origin of the New York Stock Exchange. The idea of the agreement was to make the market more "structured" and "without the manipulative auctions", with a commission structure. Persons signing the agreement agreed to charge each other a standard commission rate; persons not signing could still participate but would be charged a higher commission for dealing. In 1789, Wall Street was the scene of the United States' first presidential inauguration when George Washington took the oath of office on the balcony of Federal Hall on April 30, 1789. This was also the location of the passing of the Bill of Rights. Alexander Hamilton, who was the first Treasury secretary and "architect of the early United States financial system", is buried in the cemetery of Trinity Church, as is Robert Fulton famed for his steamboats.

19th century

In the first few decades, both residences and businesses occupied the area, but increasingly business predominated. "There are old stories of people's houses being surrounded by the clamor of business and trade and the owners complaining that they can't get anything done," according to a historian named Burrows. The opening of the Erie Canal in the early 19th century meant a huge boom in business for New York City, since it was the only major eastern seaport which had direct access by inland waterways to ports on the Great Lakes. Wall Street became the "money capital of America".

Historian Charles R. Geisst suggested that there has constantly been a "tug-of-war" between business interests on Wall Street and authorities in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States by then. Generally during the 19th century Wall Street developed its own "unique personality and institutions" with little outside interference. In the 1840s and 1850s, most residents moved further uptown to Midtown Manhattan because of the increased business use at the lower tip of the island. The Civil War greatly expanded the northern economy, bringing greater prosperity to cities like New York which "came into its own as the nation's banking center" connecting "Old World capital and New World ambition", according to one account. J. P. Morgan created giant trusts and John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil moved to New York City. Between 1860 and 1920, the economy changed from "agricultural to industrial to financial" and New York maintained its leadership position despite these changes, according to historian Thomas Kessner. New York was second only to London as the world's financial capital.

In 1884, Charles Dow began tracking stocks, initially beginning with 11 stocks, mostly railroads. He looked at average prices for these eleven. Some of the companies included in Dow's original calculations were American Tobacco Company, General Electric, Laclede Gas Company, National Lead Company, Tennessee Coal & Iron, and United States Leather Company. When the average "peaks and troughs" went up consistently, he deemed it a bull market condition; if averages dropped, it was a bear market. He added up prices, and divided by the number of stocks to get his Dow Jones average. Dow's numbers were a "convenient benchmark" for analyzing the market and became an accepted way to look at the entire stock market. In 1889 the original stock report, Customers' Afternoon Letter, became The Wall Street Journal. Named in reference to the actual street, it became an influential international daily business newspaper published in New York City. After October 7, 1896, it began publishing Dow's expanded list of stocks. A century later, there were 30 stocks in the average.

Early part

Business writer John Brooks in his book Once in Golconda considered the start of the 20th century period to have been Wall Street's heyday. The address of 23 Wall Street, the headquarters of J. P. Morgan & Company, known as The Corner, was "the precise center, geographical as well as metaphorical, of financial America and even of the financial world".

Wall Street has had changing relationships with government authorities. In 1913, for example, when authorities proposed a $4 stock transfer tax, stock clerks protested. At other times, city and state officials have taken steps through tax incentives to encourage financial firms to continue to do business in the city. A post office was built at 60 Wall Street in 1905. During the World War I years, occasionally there were fund-raising efforts for projects such as the National Guard.

On September 16, 1920, close to the corner of Wall and Broad Street, the busiest corner of the Financial District and across the offices of the Morgan Bank, a powerful bomb exploded. It killed 38 and seriously injured 143 people. The perpetrators were never identified or apprehended. The explosion did, however, help fuel the Red Scare that was underway at the time. A report from The New York Times:

"The tomb-like silence that settles over Wall Street and lower Broadway with the coming of night and the suspension of business was entirely changed last night as hundreds of men worked under the glare of searchlights to repair the damage to skyscrapers that were lighted up from top to bottom. ... The Assay Office, nearest the point of explosion, naturally suffered the most. The front was pierced in fifty places where the cast iron slugs, which were of the material used for window weights, were thrown against it. Each slug penetrated the stone an inch or two [1-2 in] and chipped off pieces ranging from three inches to a foot [3-12 in] in diameter. The ornamental iron grill work protecting each window was broken or shattered. ... the Assay Office was a wreck. ... It was as though some gigantic force had overturned the building and then placed it upright again, leaving the framework uninjured but scrambling everything inside."

The area was subjected to numerous threats; one bomb threat in 1921 led to detectives sealing off the area to "prevent a repetition of the Wall Street bomb explosion".

Regulation
September 1929 was the peak of the stock market. October 3, 1929, was when the market started to slip, and it continued throughout the week of October 14. In October 1929, renowned Yale economist Irving Fisher reassured worried investors that their "money was safe" on Wall Street. A few days later, on October 24, stock values plummeted. The stock market crash of 1929 ushered in the Great Depression, in which a quarter of working people were unemployed, with soup kitchens, mass foreclosures of farms, and falling prices. During this era, development of the Financial District stagnated, and Wall Street "paid a heavy price" and "became something of a backwater in American life".

During the New Deal years, as well as the 1940s, there was much less focus on Wall Street and finance. The government clamped down on the practice of buying equities based only on credit, but these policies began to ease. From 1946 to 1947, stocks could not be purchased "on margin", meaning that an investor had to pay 100% of a stock's cost without taking on any loans. However, this margin requirement was reduced four times before 1960, each time stimulating a mini-rally and boosting volume, and when the Federal Reserve reduced the margin requirements from 90% to 70%. These changes made it somewhat easier for investors to buy stocks on credit. The growing national economy and prosperity led to a recovery during the 1960s, with some down years during the early 1970s in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Trading volumes climbed; in 1967, according to Time Magazine, volume hit 7.5 million shares a day which caused a "traffic jam" of paper with "batteries of clerks" working overtime to "clear transactions and update customer accounts".

In 1973, the financial community posted a collective loss of $245 million, which spurred temporary help from the government. Reforms were instituted; the Securities & Exchange Commission eliminated fixed commissions, which forced "brokers to compete freely with one another for investors' business". In 1975, the SEC threw out the NYSE's "Rule 394" which had required that "most stock transactions take place on the Big Board's floor", in effect freeing up trading for electronic methods. In 1976, banks were allowed to buy and sell stocks, which provided more competition for stockbrokers. Reforms had the effect of lowering prices overall, making it easier for more people to participate in the stock market. Broker commissions for each stock sale lessened, but volume increased.

The Reagan years were marked by a renewed push for capitalism and business, with national efforts to de-regulate industries such as telecommunications and aviation. The economy resumed upward growth after a period in the early 1980s of languishing. A report in The New York Times described that the flushness of money and growth during these years had spawned a drug culture of sorts, with a rampant acceptance of cocaine use although the overall percent of actual users was most likely small. A reporter wrote:

"The Wall Street drug dealer looked like many other successful young female executives. Stylishly dressed and wearing designer sunglasses, she sat in her 1983 Chevrolet Camaro in a no-parking zone across the street from the Marine Midland Bank branch on lower Broadway. The customer in the passenger seat looked like a successful young businessman. But as the dealer slipped him a heat-sealed plastic envelope of cocaine and he passed her cash, the transaction was being watched through the sunroof of her car by Federal drug agents in a nearby building. And the customer — an undercover agent himself -was learning the ways, the wiles and the conventions of Wall Street's drug subculture."

In 1987, the stock market plunged, and, in the relatively brief recession following, the surrounding area lost 100,000 jobs according to one estimate. Since telecommunications costs were coming down, banks and brokerage firms could move away from the Financial District to more affordable locations. One of the firms looking to move away was the NYSE. In 1998, the NYSE and the city struck a $900 million deal which kept the NYSE from moving across the river to Jersey City; the deal was described as the "largest in city history to prevent a corporation from leaving town".

21st century
In 2001, the Big Board, as some termed the NYSE, was described as the world's "largest and most prestigious stock market". When the World Trade Center was destroyed on September 11, 2001, the attacks "crippled" the communications network and destroyed many buildings in the Financial District, although the buildings on Wall Street itself saw only little physical damage. One estimate was that 45% of Wall Street's "best office space" had been lost. The NYSE was determined to re-open on September 17, almost a week after the attack. During this time Rockefeller Group Business Center opened additional offices at 48 Wall Street. Still, after September 11, the financial services industry went through a downturn with a sizable drop in year-end bonuses of $6.5 billion, according to one estimate from a state comptroller's office.

To guard against a vehicular bombing in the area, authorities built concrete barriers, and found ways over time to make them more aesthetically appealing by spending $5000 to $8000 apiece on bollards. Parts of Wall Street, as well as several other streets in the neighborhood, were blocked off by specially designed bollards:

"... Rogers Marvel designed a new kind of bollard, a faceted piece of sculpture whose broad, slanting surfaces offer people a place to sit in contrast to the typical bollard, which is supremely unsittable. The bollard, which is called the Nogo, looks a bit like one of Frank Gehry's unorthodox culture palaces, but it is hardly insensitive to its surroundings. Its bronze surfaces actually echo the grand doorways of Wall Street's temples of commerce. Pedestrians easily slip through groups of them as they make their way onto Wall Street from the area around historic Trinity Church. Cars, however, cannot pass."

The Guardian reporter Andrew Clark described the years of 2006 to 2010 as "tumultuous", in which the heartland of America was "mired in gloom" with high unemployment around 9.6%, with average house prices falling from $230,000 in 2006 to $183,000, and foreboding increases in the national debt to $13.4 trillion, but that despite the setbacks, the American economy was once more "bouncing back". What had happened during these heady years? Clark wrote:

"But the picture is too nuanced simply to dump all the responsibility on financiers. Most Wall Street banks didn't actually go around the US hawking dodgy mortgages; they bought and packaged loans from on-the-ground firms such as Countrywide Financial and New Century Financial, both of which hit a financial wall in the crisis. Foolishly and recklessly, the banks didn't look at these loans adequately, relying on flawed credit-rating agencies such as Standard & Poor's and Moody's, which blithely certified toxic mortgage-backed securities as solid ... A few of those on Wall Street, including maverick hedge fund manager John Paulson and the top brass at Goldman Sachs, spotted what was going on and ruthlessly gambled on a crash. They made a fortune but turned into the crisis's pantomime villains. Most, though, got burned – the banks are still gradually running down portfolios of non-core loans worth $800bn."

The first months of 2008 was a particularly troublesome period which caused Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke to "work holidays and weekends" and which did an "extraordinary series of moves". It bolstered U.S. banks and allowed Wall Street firms to borrow "directly from the Fed" through a vehicle called the Fed's Discount Window, a sort of lender of last report. These efforts were highly controversial at the time, but from the perspective of 2010, it appeared the Federal exertions had been the right decisions.

By 2010, Wall Street firms, in Clark's view, were "getting back to their old selves as engine rooms of wealth, prosperity and excess". A report by Michael Stoler in The New York Sun described a "phoenix-like resurrection" of the area, with residential, commercial, retail and hotels booming in the "third largest business district in the country".

At the same time, the investment community was worried about proposed legal reforms, including the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act which dealt with matters such as credit card rates and lending requirements. The NYSE closed two of its trading floors in a move towards transforming itself into an electronic exchange. Beginning in September 2011, demonstrators disenchanted with the financial system protested in parks and plazas around Wall Street.

On October 29, 2012, Wall Street was disrupted when New York and New Jersey were inundated by Hurricane Sandy. Its 14 ft storm surge, a local record, caused massive street flooding nearby. The NYSE was closed for weather-related reasons, the first time since Hurricane Gloria in September 1985 and the first two-day weather-related shutdown since the Blizzard of 1888.

Architecture

Wall Street's architecture is generally rooted in the Gilded Age. The older skyscrapers often were built with elaborate facades, which have not been common in corporate architecture for decades. There are numerous landmarks on Wall Street, some of which were erected as the headquarters of banks. These include:
 * Federal Hall National Memorial (26 Wall Street), built in 1833–1842. The building, which previously housed the United States Custom House and then the Subtreasury, is now a national monument.
 * 55 Wall Street, erected in 1836–1841 as the four-story Merchants Exchange, was turned into the United States Custom House in the late 19th century. An expansion in 1907–1910 turned it into the eight-story National City Bank Building.
 * 14 Wall Street, a 32-story skyscraper with a 7-story stepped pyramid, built in 1910–1912 with an expansion in 1931–1933. It was originally the Bankers Trust Company Building.
 * 23 Wall Street, a four-story headquarters built in 1914, was known as the "House of Morgan" and served for decades as the J.P. Morgan & Co. bank's headquarters and, by some accounts, was considered an important address in American finance. Cosmetic damage from the 1920 Wall Street bombing is still visible on the Wall Street side of this building.
 * 48 Wall Street, a 32-story skyscraper built in 1927–1929 as the Bank of New York & Trust Company Building.
 * 40 Wall Street, a 71-story skyscraper built in 1929–1930 as the Bank of Manhattan Company Building; it later became the Trump Building.
 * 1 Wall Street, a 50-story skyscraper built in 1929–1931 with an expansion in 1963–1965. It was previously known as the Irving Trust Company Building and the Bank of New York Building.
 * 75 Wall Street, built in 1987. It was built to be the U.S. headquarters of Barclays although several firms leased space in the building after it opened. It was converted in 2006–2009 into a mixed-use building with condominiums and a hotel.
 * 60 Wall Street, built in 1988. It was formerly the J.P. Morgan & Co. headquarters before becoming the U.S. headquarters of Deutsche Bank. It is the last remaining major investment bank headquarters on Wall Street.

Another key anchor for the area is the New York Stock Exchange Building at the corner of Broad Street. It houses the New York Stock Exchange, which is by far the world's largest stock exchange per market capitalization of its listed companies,   at US$28.5 trillion as of June 30, 2018. City authorities realize its importance, and believed that it has "outgrown its neoclassical temple at the corner of Wall and Broad streets", and in 1998, offered substantial tax incentives to try to keep it in the Financial District. Plans to rebuild it were delayed by the September 11 attacks. The exchange still occupies the same site. The exchange is the locus for a large amount of technology and data. For example, to accommodate the three thousand people who work directly on the exchange floor requires 3,500 kilowatts of electricity, along with 8,000 phone circuits on the trading floor alone, and 200 mi of fiber-optic cable below ground.

In the New York economy
Finance professor Charles R. Geisst wrote that the exchange has become "inextricably intertwined into New York's economy". Wall Street pay, in terms of salaries and bonuses and taxes, is an important part of the economy of New York City, the tri-state metropolitan area, and the United States. Anchored by Wall Street, New York City has been called the world's most economically powerful city and leading financial center. See: * *  *  *  *  As such, a falloff in Wall Street's economy could have "wrenching effects on the local and regional economies". In 2008, after a downturn in the stock market, the decline meant $18 billion less in taxable income, with less money available for "apartments, furniture, cars, clothing and services".

Estimates vary about the number and quality of financial jobs in the city. One estimate was that Wall Street firms employed close to 200,000 persons in 2008. Another estimate was that in 2007, the financial services industry which had a $70 billion profit became 22 percent of the city's revenue. Another estimate (in 2006) was that the financial services industry makes up 9% of the city's work force and 31% of the tax base. An additional estimate from 2007 by Steve Malanga of the Manhattan Institute was that the securities industry accounts for 4.7 percent of the jobs in New York City but 20.7 percent of its wages, and he estimated there were 175,000 securities-industries jobs in New York (both Wall Street area and midtown) paying an average of $350,000 annually. Between 1995 and 2005, the sector grew at an annual rate of about 6.6% annually, a respectable rate, but that other financial centers were growing faster. Another estimate, made in 2008, was that Wall Street provided a fourth of all personal income earned in the city, and 10% of New York City's tax revenue. The city's securities industry, enumerating 163,400 jobs in August 2013, continues to form the largest segment of the city's financial sector and an important economic engine, accounting in 2012 for 5 percent of private sector jobs in New York City, 8.5 percent (US$3.8 billion) of the city's tax revenue, and 22 percent of the city's total wages, including an average salary of US$360,700.

The seven largest Wall Street firms in the 2000s were Bear Stearns, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers. During the recession of 2008–10, many of these firms, including Lehman, went out of business or were bought up at firesale prices by other financial firms. In 2008, Lehman filed for bankruptcy, Bear Stearns was bought by JPMorgan Chase forced by the U.S. government, and Merrill Lynch was bought by Bank of America in a similar shot-gun wedding. These failures marked a catastrophic downsizing of Wall Street as the financial industry goes through restructuring and change. Since New York's financial industry provides almost one-fourth of all income produced in the city, and accounts for 10% of the city's tax revenues and 20% of the state's, the downturn has had huge repercussions for government treasuries. New York's mayor Michael Bloomberg reportedly over a four-year period dangled over $100 million in tax incentives to persuade Goldman Sachs to build a 43-story headquarters in the Financial District near the destroyed World Trade Center site. In 2009, things looked somewhat gloomy, with one analysis by the Boston Consulting Group suggesting that 65,000 jobs had been permanently lost because of the downturn. But there were signs that Manhattan property prices were rebounding with price rises of 9% annually in 2010, and bonuses were being paid once more, with average bonuses over $124,000 in 2010.

Versus Midtown Manhattan
A requirement of the New York Stock Exchange was that brokerage firms had to have offices "clustered around Wall Street" so clerks could deliver physical paper copies of stock certificates each week. There were some indications that midtown had been becoming the locus of financial services dealings even by 1911. But as technology progressed, in the middle and later decades of the 20th century, computers and telecommunications replaced paper notifications, meaning that the close proximity requirement could be bypassed in more situations. Many financial firms found that they could move to Midtown Manhattan, only 4 mi away, and still operate effectively. For example, the former investment firm of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette was described as a Wall Street firm but had its headquarters on Park Avenue in Midtown. A report described the migration from Wall Street:

"The financial industry has been slowly migrating from its historic home in the warren of streets around Wall Street to the more spacious and glamorous office towers of Midtown Manhattan. Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup, and Bear Stearns have all moved north."

Nevertheless, a key magnet for the Wall Street remains the New York Stock Exchange Building. Some "old guard" firms such as Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch (bought by Bank of America in 2009), have remained "fiercely loyal to the Financial District" location, and new ones such as Deutsche Bank have chosen office space in the district. So-called "face-to-face" trading between buyers and sellers remains a "cornerstone" of the NYSE, with a benefit of having all of a deal's players close at hand, including investment bankers, lawyers, and accountants.

In the New Jersey economy
After Wall Street firms started to expand westward in the 1980s into New Jersey, the direct economic impacts of Wall Street activities have gone beyond New York City. The employment in the financial services industry, mostly in the "back office" roles, has become an important part of New Jersey's economy. In 2009, the Wall Street employment wages were paid in the amount of almost $18.5 billion in the state. The industry contributed $39.4 billion or 8.4 percent to the New Jersey's gross domestic product in the same year. The most significant area with Wall Street employment is in Jersey City. In 2008, the "Wall Street West" employment contributed to one third of the private sector jobs in Jersey City. Within the Financial Service cluster, there were three major sectors: more than 60 percent were in the securities industry; 20 percent were in banking; and 8 percent in insurance.

Additionally, New Jersey has become the main technology infrastructure to support the Wall Street operations. A substantial amount of securities traded in the United States are executed in New Jersey as the data centers of electronic trading in the U.S. equity market for all major stock exchanges are located in North and Central Jersey. A significant amount of securities clearing and settlement workforce is also in the state. This includes the majority of the workforce of Depository Trust Company, the primary U.S. securities depository; and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, the parent company of National Securities Clearing Corporation, the Fixed Income Clearing Corporation and Emerging Markets Clearing Corporation. Having a direct tie to Wall Street employment can be problematic for New Jersey, however. The state lost 7.9 percent of its employment base from 2007 to 2010 in the financial services sector in the fallout of the subprime mortgage crisis.

Competing financial centers
Of the street's importance as a financial center, New York Times analyst Daniel Gross wrote:

"In today's burgeoning and increasingly integrated global financial markets — a vast, neural spaghetti of wires, Web sites and trading platforms — the N.Y.S.E. is clearly no longer the epicenter. Nor is New York. The largest mutual-fund complexes are in Valley Forge, Pa., Los Angeles and Boston, while trading and money management are spreading globally. Since the end of the cold war, vast pools of capital have been forming overseas, in the Swiss bank accounts of Russian oligarchs, in the Shanghai vaults of Chinese manufacturing magnates and in the coffers of funds controlled by governments in Singapore, Russia, Dubai, Qatar and Saudi Arabia that may amount to some $2.5 trillion."

An example is the alternative trading platform known as BATS, based in Kansas City, which came "out of nowhere to gain a 9 percent share in the market for trading United States stocks". The firm has computers in the U.S. state of New Jersey, and only two salespeople in New York City; the remaining 33 employees work in a center in Kansas.

As a financial symbol
Wall Street in a conceptual sense represents financial and economic power. To Americans, it can sometimes represent elitism and power politics, and its role has been a source of controversy throughout the nation's history, particularly beginning around the Gilded Age period in the late 19th century. Wall Street became the symbol of a country and economic system that many Americans see as having developed through trade, capitalism, and innovation.

The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, the American financial services industry, or New York–based financial interests. Wall Street has become synonymous with financial interests, often used negatively. During the subprime mortgage crisis from 2007 to 2010, Wall Street financing was blamed as one of the causes, although most commentators blame an interplay of factors. The U.S. government with the Troubled Asset Relief Program bailed out the banks and financial backers with billions of taxpayer dollars, but the bailout was often criticized as politically motivated, and was criticized by journalists as well as the public. Analyst Robert Kuttner in the Huffington Post criticized the bailout as helping large Wall Street firms such as Citigroup while neglecting to help smaller community development banks such as Chicago's ShoreBank. One writer in the Huffington Post looked at FBI statistics on robbery, fraud, and crime and concluded that Wall Street was the "most dangerous neighborhood in the United States" if one factored in the $50 billion fraud perpetrated by Bernie Madoff.

When large firms such as Enron, WorldCom, and Global Crossing were found guilty of fraud, Wall Street was often blamed, even though these firms had headquarters around the nation and not in Wall Street. Many complained that the resulting Sarbanes-Oxley legislation dampened the business climate with regulations that were "overly burdensome". Interest groups seeking favor with Washington lawmakers, such as car dealers, have often sought to portray their interests as allied with Main Street rather than Wall Street, although analyst Peter Overby on National Public Radio suggested that car dealers have written over $250 billion in consumer loans and have real ties with Wall Street.

When the United States Treasury bailed out large financial firms, to ostensibly halt a downward spiral in the nation's economy, there was tremendous negative political fallout, particularly when reports came out that monies supposed to be used to ease credit restrictions were being used to pay bonuses to highly paid employees. Analyst William D. Cohan argued that it was "obscene" how Wall Street reaped "massive profits and bonuses in 2009" after being saved by "trillions of dollars of American taxpayers' treasure" despite Wall Street's "greed and irresponsible risk-taking". Washington Post reporter Suzanne McGee called for Wall Street to make a sort of public apology to the nation, and expressed dismay that people such as Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein hadn't expressed contrition despite being sued by the SEC in 2009. McGee wrote that "Bankers aren't the sole culprits, but their too-glib denials of responsibility and the occasional vague and waffling expression of regret don't go far enough to deflect anger."

But chief banking analyst at Goldman Sachs, Richard Ramsden, is "unapologetic" and sees "banks as the dynamos that power the rest of the economy". Ramsden believes "risk-taking is vital" and said in 2010:

"You can construct a banking system in which no bank will ever fail, in which there's no leverage. But there would be a cost. There would be virtually no economic growth because there would be no credit creation."

Others in the financial industry believe that they have been unfairly castigated by the public and by politicians. For example, Anthony Scaramucci reportedly told President Barack Obama in 2010 that he felt like a piñata, "whacked with a stick" by "hostile politicians". The financial misdeeds of various figures throughout American history sometimes casts a dark shadow on financial investing as a whole, and include names such as William Duer, Jim Fisk and Jay Gould (the latter two believed to have been involved with an effort to collapse the U.S. gold market in 1869) as well as modern figures such as Bernard Madoff who "bilked billions from investors".

In addition, images of Wall Street and its figures have loomed large. The 1987 Oliver Stone film Wall Street created the iconic figure of Gordon Gekko who used the phrase "greed is good", which caught on in the cultural parlance. Gekko is reportedly based on multiple real-life individuals on Wall Street, including corporate raider Carl Icahn, disgraced stock trader Ivan Boesky, and investor Michael Ovitz. In 2009, Stone commented how the film had had an unexpected cultural influence, not causing them to turn away from corporate greed, but causing many young people to choose Wall Street careers because of the film. A reporter repeated other lines from the film: "I'm talking about liquid. Rich enough to have your own jet. Rich enough not to waste time. Fifty, a hundred million dollars, Buddy. A player." Wall Street firms have, however, also contributed to projects such as Habitat for Humanity, as well as done food programs in Haiti, trauma centers in Sudan, and rescue boats during floods in Bangladesh.

In popular culture

 * Herman Melville's classic short story "Bartleby, the Scrivener" (first published in 1853 and republished in revised edition in 1856) is subtitled "A Story of Wall Street" and portrays the alienating forces at work within the confines of Wall Street.
 * Many events of Tom Wolfe's 1987 novel The Bonfire of the Vanities center on Wall Street and its culture.
 * The film Wall Street (1987) and its sequel Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010) exemplify many popular conceptions of Wall Street as a center of shady corporate dealings and insider trading.
 * In the Star Trek universe, the Ferengi are said to make regular pilgrimages to Wall Street, which they worship as a holy site of commerce and business.
 * On January 26, 2000, the band Rage Against the Machine filmed the music video for "Sleep Now in the Fire" on Wall Street, which was directed by Michael Moore. The New York Stock Exchange closed early that day, at 2:52 p.m.
 * In the 2012 film The Dark Knight Rises, Bane attacks the Gotham City Stock Exchange. Scenes were filmed in and around the New York Stock Exchange, with the J.P. Morgan Building at Wall Street and Broad Street standing in for the Exchange.
 * The 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street is a dark comedy about Jordan Belfort, a New York stockbroker who ran Stratton Oakmont, a firm from Lake Success, New York, that engaged in securities fraud and corruption on Wall Street from 1987 to 1998.

Personalities associated with the street
Many people associated with Wall Street have become famous; although in most cases their reputations are limited to members of the stock brokerage and banking communities, others have gained national and international fame. For some, like hedge fund manager Ray Dalio, their fame is due to skillful investment strategies, financing, reporting, legal or regulatory activities, while others such as Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken and Bernie Madoff are remembered for their notable failures or scandal.

Transportation
With Wall Street being historically a commuter destination, a plethora of transportation infrastructure has been developed to serve it. Pier 11 near Wall Street's eastern end is a busy terminal for New York Waterway, NYC Ferry, New York Water Taxi, and SeaStreak. The Downtown Manhattan Heliport also serves Wall Street.

There are three New York City Subway stations under Wall Street:
 * Wall Street station at William Street
 * Wall Street station at Broadway
 * Broad Street station at Broad Street, with an entrance at Wall Street

From 1934 to the mid-1980s, Wall Street Skyport served as a seaplane base that was primarily used by suburban commuters.

Other sources

 * Atwood, Albert W. and Erickson, Erling A. "Morgan, John Pierpont, (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913)," in Dictionary of American Biography, Volume 7 (1934)
 * Caplan, Sheri J. Petticoats and Pinstripes: Portraits of Women in Wall Street's History. Praeger, 2013. ISBN 978-1-4408-0265-2
 * Carosso, Vincent P. The Morgans: Private International Bankers, 1854–1913. Harvard University Press, 1987. 888 pp. ISBN 978-0-674-58729-8
 * Carosso, Vincent P. Investment Banking in America: A History Harvard University Press (1970)
 * Chernow, Ron. The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance, (2001) ISBN 0-8021-3829-2
 * Fraser, Steve. Every Man a Speculator: A History of Wall Street in American Life HarperCollins (2005)
 * Geisst, Charles R. Wall Street: A History from Its Beginnings to the Fall of Enron. Oxford University Press, 2004. online edition
 * Jaffe, Stephen H. & Lautin, Jessica. Capital of Capital: Money, Banking, and Power in New York City, 1784–2012 (2014)
 * Moody, John. The Masters of Capital: A Chronicle of Wall Street Yale University Press, (1921) online edition
 * Morris, Charles R. The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy (2005) ISBN 978-0-8050-8134-3
 * Perkins, Edwin J. Wall Street to Main Street: Charles Merrill and Middle-class Investors (1999)
 * Sobel, Robert. The Big Board: A History of the New York Stock Market (1962)
 * Sobel, Robert. The Great Bull Market: Wall Street in the 1920s (1968)
 * Sobel, Robert. Inside Wall Street: Continuity & Change in the Financial District (1977)
 * Strouse, Jean. Morgan: American Financier. Random House, 1999. 796 pp. ISBN 978-0-679-46275-0
 * Finkelman, Paul. Encyclopedia of African American History 1896 to the present. Oxford University Press Inc, (2009)
 * Kindleberger, Charles. The world in Depression 1929–1939. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, (1973)
 * Gordon, John Steele. The Great Game: The Emergence of Wall Street as a World Power: 1653–2000. Scribner, (1999)

title: Wall Street


text:
Denise Richards

Denise Lee Richards (born February 17, 1971) is an American actress and television personality. Her most recognized roles are Carmen Ibanez in Starship Troopers (1997), Kelly Van Ryan in Wild Things (1998) and Bond girl Christmas Jones in The World Is Not Enough (1999).

She has appeared in films Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999), Valentine (2001), Undercover Brother (2002), Scary Movie 3 (2003), Love Actually (2003), and Madea's Witness Protection (2012). Her television roles include Paramount Network's sitcom Blue Mountain State (2010–2011), ABC Family's mystery-thriller series Twisted (2013–2014) and CBS' soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful (2019–2022).

She has also appeared in reality television, including E!'s Denise Richards: It's Complicated (2008–2009) and Bravo's The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (2019–2020, 2023–24) and her upcoming series Denise Richards and the Wild Things (2025). In 2011, Richards published a memoir, The Real Girl Next Door, which became a New York Times Best Seller.

Early life
Richards was born in Downers Grove, Illinois, to Joni (née Braden), a coffee shop owner, and Irv Richards, a telephone engineer. Her mother died of cancer in November 2007. She has said that her ancestry includes German and French heritage. Richards has a younger sister, Michelle. She grew up in both Downers Grove and Mokena, Illinois. As a child, she was the "only girl on the baseball team".

When Richards was 15 years old, her family moved to Oceanside, California. In 1989, she graduated from El Camino High School. She was voted best looking in her high school yearbook. Richards was raised Catholic. After her high school graduation, she began working as a model and traveled to cities such as Paris, New York, and Tokyo to do photo shoots and commercials.

1990–2008: Career beginnings and breakthrough
Richards began her career as a teenager in modeling and appeared in print ads for Bonne Bell cosmetics in 1991. She also appeared on the cover of Teen magazine, instructional video "Modeling: What It Takes" and later went on to appear in Max Factor's Premiere 2K advertising campaign.

In the 1990s, Richards appeared in several films and television shows such as Loaded Weapon 1 (1993), Tammy and the T-Rex (1994), Lookin' Italian (1994), and guest starring in episodes of Saved by the Bell, Married... with Children and Doogie Howser, M.D. In 1993, she portrayed Ben Affleck's character's girlfriend named Jodi Collins, in the short-lived drama series Against the Grain. Richards made guest appearances in several television shows, including Beverly Hills, 90210 (1992), Seinfeld (1993), Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1994), and a guest-arc in Melrose Place (1996). In 1995, Richards appeared in a made-for-TV movie In the Blink of an Eye, alongside Veronica Hamel and Mimi Rogers.

Her first starring role in a wide theatrical release was Starship Troopers in 1997 for which Richards was nominated for the Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Female Newcomer. The film grossed a total of $121.2 million worldwide. In 2012, Slant Magazine ranked the film at number 20 on its list of the 100 Best Films of the 1990s. She followed this with a role in the erotic thriller film Wild Things (1998) alongside Kevin Bacon, Matt Dillon and Neve Campbell. Variety praised Richards's transition from good-girl-type roles to manipulative villainess and the review continued to include her as part of "an ensemble that appears to be enjoying the challenge of offbeat roles and unusual material. There's not a wrong note struck by the game group of players." In 2016, Glamour praised the film's female characters by describing Richards and Neve Campbell as "two of the most well-rounded, fascinating, and exciting characters to ever grace the screen."

Richards was cast as the nuclear physicist Christmas Jones in the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough (1999). Though she considered her role "brainy", "athletic", and having depth of character, she was criticized as not credible in the role. Her outfit, which often comprised a low-cut tank top and tight shorts, elicited unfavorable comments. Richards stated that a lot of viewers "made fun of" the character's attire but that "These Bond girls are so outrageous and if I did really look like a scientist, the Bond fans would have been disappointed." Richards was nominated for the Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favourite Actress – Action, for the film. Later that year, Richards starred alongside Kirsten Dunst in the beauty pageant satire, Drop Dead Gorgeous. The film has gained new fans with time and is regarded as a cult film. Richards, playing a spoiled princess, was praised for her performance by Los Angeles Times for being "as rightly nasty as she is pretty".

In 2001, she guest-starred in Friends as Ross and Monica Geller's cousin, Cassie Geller in the episode "The One with Ross and Monica's Cousin". Later that year, she appeared in four episodes of Spin City as Jennifer Duncan, a love interest of Charlie Sheen's character. She starred as Sheen's character's ex-girlfriend two years later in two episodes of Two and a Half Men. Richards appeared in numerous films such as Valentine (2001), Good Advice (2001), Undercover Brother (2002), The Third Wheel (2002) and You Stupid Man (2002). She played Annie Logan in the horror comedy film Scary Movie 3 (2003), which was a commercial success and grossed $220 million worldwide. The film's plot significantly parodies the films The Ring, Signs, The Matrix Reloaded. Richards made a brief appearance in the British romantic comedy Love Actually (2003)''.  In 2004, she appeared in two films, Whore and Elvis Has Left the Building''.

In 2005, Richards had a lead role as publicist Jolene in the short-lived UPN soap opera Sex, Love & Secrets. The series focused on rich young adults living in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, and their secrets involving sex and love. She starred in the ensemble drama film Edmond (2005) alongside William H. Macy and Mena Suvari. In 2008, she reunited with her Wild Things on-screen mother Theresa Russell in the drama film Jolene (2008). Her reality show Denise Richards: It's Complicated debuted on E! on May 26, 2008. The series followed the daily lives of Richards, her daughters Sam and Lola, and her married younger sister Michelle and father Irv. Entertainment Weekly published a review and wrote that "It's Complicated is one of those "celebs, they're just like us!" shows in which we're expected to enjoy watching a famous pampered person doing things we don't want to do either." The series concluded after two seasons on July 26, 2009.

2009–2019: Memoir and television roles
Richards appeared on the 8th season of dance competition television series Dancing with the Stars, paired with Maksim Chmerkovskiy. She was the second contestant eliminated on March 24, 2009. She landed the role of Autumn Bliss in the romantic comedy film Deep in the Valley (2009) alongside Kim Kardashian and Chris Pratt. In 2010, she joined Paramount Network's sitcom Blue Mountain State as Debra Simon. The series is about a fictional university, Blue Mountain State, and its football team, the "Mountain Goats". It portrays certain aspects of American university life, including American football, sex, drinking, and partying. In February 2012, it was reported that Blue Mountain State would not be renewed for a fourth season. Over the years, due in large part to being streamable on Netflix, the series has developed a cult following. In July 2011, Richards published a memoir The Real Girl Next Door, a New York Times Best Seller. Richards decided to write a book because she "wanted to do something inspirational for other people going through challenging times," she told HuffPost in 2011. In September 2011, Richards reportedly turned down $100,000 to appear as an ex-girlfriend at Charlie Sheen's funeral in Two and a Half Men. A month later, she began filming a guest spot for an episode for the sixth season of NBC comedy series 30 Rock. Richards was part of TV Guide Network's show, Hollywood Moms' Club, which aired in November 2011.

Richards played Kate Needleman in the comedy film Madea's Witness Protection (2012), which grossed $67 million at the box office. Madea's Witness Protection was filmed in Atlanta in early 2012 and was released through 34th Street Films and Lionsgate. In 2012, Richards joined the cast of ABC Family's mystery-thriller television series Twisted. In 2015, she appeared in two films, Operation: Neighborhood Watch! and Christmas Trade. In 2016, she made a guest appearance as herself in The CW's Jane the Virgin, in the episode "Chapter Fifty-One." She portrayed Kat Faust in the musical thriller film American Satan (2017), for which Richards was nominated for the Festival Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Feature Film at the Northeast Film Festival. Later that year, Richards portrayed Temple Hampton in an episode of Bravo's comedy-drama series Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce. She starred in the supernatural horror film The Toybox (2018) opposite Mischa Barton. The film is about a family who go on a summer road trip in a used RV and get stranded in the desert by a supernatural force that is slowly killing them off. She portrayed Karen in the faith-based film The Prayer Box (2018), released on October 20, 2018.

In August 2018, Richards announced that she would be joining the Bravo reality series, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, for the show's ninth season, which premiered on February 12, 2019. Vanity Fair described her addition to the series by saying: "She might be one of the most famous people to join the Housewives franchise, someone who was a legitimate household name before becoming a reality star. Now, that doesn't always translate to on-screen gold, but it is a nice little coup for Bravo." The New York Times wrote that Richards "brought a refreshing and occasionally disarming dose of reality" to the series. On May 31, 2019, The Daily Beast wrote that "Richards's appearance on the show is the best kind of surprise, one that reveals that a celebrity is not who we may have assumed them to be. She's an extremely warm, loving parent, without a hint of narcissism or vapidity about her." Fox News called her "an instant fan favorite" when she joined the show in 2019.

In 2019, she joined the cast of CBS' soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful as Shauna Fulton. "Shauna is a fun-loving, hard-working single mother from Las Vegas who aspires to live life to its absolute fullest," executive producer and headwriter Bradley Bell told People magazine. In July 2019, it was announced that Richards had joined the cast of Fox Broadcasting's comedy-drama television series BH90210 in a guest role, playing a fictionalized version of herself. She portrayed overly-ambitious mother Candice in Lifetime television film The Secret Lives of Cheerleaders, released on September 2, 2019. "I think the story's about this girl that's trying to fit in and makes some bad choices and then, knowing right from wrong, decided to make a better choice," Richards told Parade. On November 4, 2019, Richards appeared as a guest model on the game show The Price Is Right. Richards played Valerie in the Christmas film My Adventures with Santa (2019) opposite Patrick Muldoon. The film was released in limited theaters on November 15, 2019.

2020–present: Films and return to reality television
Richards returned for The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills ' tenth season, which premiered on April 15, 2020. On September 10, 2020, her representative confirmed that Richards is leaving the series after two seasons. In late 2020, Richards traveled to Spain to begin filming adventure drama series Glow & Darkness, portraying the role of Countess of Champagne. In 2020, she appeared in five films: Money Plane, Switched, Reality Queen!, Alpha Code and Timecrafters: The Treasure of Pirate's Cove. The heist film Money Plane was released to video-on-demand services on July 10, 2020, by Quiver Distribution. In Switched, released on September 4, 2020, Richards portrayed Victoria Sharp, the mother of a school bully. On August 28, 2021, she played Amanda in Lifetime's thriller film Killer Cheer Mom. The film follows a high school junior named Riley, who moved to a new town with her dad and stepmom, Amanda (Richards).

In June 2024, People magazine reported that Richards had signed a deal with E! to star in a new reality television show called Denise Richards and the Wild Things. The series will follow Richards' family life and is set to premiere in 2025. She is also an executive producer of the series.

Modeling and other ventures
During her career, Richards has graced the covers of numerous magazines, including Cosmopolitan (Poland, Greece, US and Germany), Redbook, Details, Esquire, Self, Shape, GQ, Bella and Empire. In December 2004, she posed for a nude pictorial in Playboy magazine, five months after giving birth. Richards posed semi-nude for the July 2006 issue of Jane magazine to raise money for the Clothes Off Our Back Foundation. She has appeared in television commercials for Pepsi, Head & Shoulders, Secret, J.C. Penney and Librero. Richards walked the runway at the "Max Factor Salutes Hollywood" fashion show on March 14, 2007, in Hollywood. In 2010, Richards walked the runway for Ali Landry and Annie Kate Pons' fashion line, Belle Parish's fashion show. In September 2019, she walked the runway for Kyle Richards' and Shahida Clayton's new clothing brand at New York Fashion Week.

Richards launched her self-titled fragrance in spring 2012. In 2012, Richards appeared in an infomercial for abdominal muscle toner "The Flex Belt" alongside Adrianne Curry, Lisa Rinna and Janet Evans. In 2013, she became the brand ambassador for Oro Gold Cosmetics. In 2017, she appeared in furniture brand Urban Home's commercials and advertising campaigns. She has appeared in rock band Blues Traveler's music video for the song "Canadian Rose" and rapper Snoop Dogg's music video for "Undercova Funk".

In November 2019, Richards announced that she has developed a skincare line with CBme Beauty.

Richards joined OnlyFans as a content creator in June 2022, as a gesture of support for her daughter Sam, who had attracted criticism for launching her own account. She said that she believed "the creators of [OnlyFans] really took the best of every platform of social media and put it into one site," because as a creator, "you own your content. The other sites, they can sell your content." Richards earns a significant income via the site. Her friend, Tori Spelling, later admitted to subscribing with a pseudonymous account and spending over $400 on content and tips in two days.

Public image
Richards's appearance has often been the subject of media attention. In 1999, she was ranked #9 in Maxim 's 50 Sexiest Women. In 2001, she was voted #2 in FHM 's 100 Sexiest Women, #5 in FHM's 100 Sexiest Women and #19 in AskMen.com's 50 Most Beautiful Women. She was named one of the "100 Hottest Women of All-Time" by Men's Health. In 2002, Richards was ranked at number 21 in Stuff magazine's "102 Sexiest Women in the World." In 2011, Men's Health ranked her at number 61 on their list of "100 Hottest Women of All Time." Shape magazine ranked her at number 7 on their list of "10 of Our Fave Bond Girls: Then and Now."

Personal life
Richards became engaged to actor Charlie Sheen on December 26, 2001, and they were married on June 15, 2002, at the estate of Spin City creator Gary David Goldberg. They have two children together. In March 2005, while pregnant with their second child, Richards filed for divorce from Sheen. She sought a restraining order against Sheen, alleging death threats against her. On April 19, 2006, Richards filed formal legal papers seeking a divorce from Sheen under the laws of the state of California. The divorce was finalized on November 30, 2006; Sheen was ordered to stay 300 feet away from his ex-wife and their daughters, except during supervised visits. In May 2010, Sheen surrendered legal custody of Sam and Lola to Richards. They previously had joint legal custody of their daughters. According to a source, Richards wanted sole legal custody, given Sheen's "marital turmoil, sobriety issues, and criminal problems" and he did not fight it. Under their divorce agreement, she had primary physical custody and he had visitation rights.

By mid-2012, Richards and Sheen were on good terms, often spending time together with their children. In 2012, Sheen made a cameo appearance in her movie Madea's Witness Protection, while Richards appeared in Sheen's television series Anger Management. In a move supported by Sheen, in May 2013, Richards was awarded temporary custody of the twin sons born in 2009 to Sheen and his wife Brooke Mueller, after the children were removed from Mueller's home by child protective services due to concerns over drug use.

In June 2011, Richards adopted a third daughter, Eloise Joni Richards, as a single parent. Her middle name honors Richards’ deceased mother. Richards adopted her at birth, following a two-year adoption process. Eloise has a rare chromosomal disorder, Chromosome 8, Monosomy 8p, which affects her speech. Richards has worked on learning sign language to communicate with her daughter.

In December 2017, Richards began dating Aaron Phypers before his divorce with Nicolette Sheridan was finalized. On September 8, 2018, Richards and Phypers were wed in Malibu, California. In May 2019, Richards announced that Phypers was adopting her youngest daughter, Eloise.

Philanthropy
Outside of work, Richards dedicates much of her time to philanthropy. She has supported numerous charities, including Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, Feeding America, Much Love Animal Rescue, Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes, Best Friends Animal Society and Children's Hospital Los Angeles. Richards has also appeared in the NOH8 Campaign and has spoken in support of gay marriage.

Richards has worked with Best Friends Animal Society on several projects, including its Pup My Ride program, which transports small dogs from high-kill animal shelters to other parts of the US where there is a greater demand for small dogs. She promoted Best Friends Animal Society's Save Them All campaign in 2014. "I've been involved with Best Friends Animal Society since 2009 and I've seen firsthand the differences they've made and the countless lives they've saved," Richards said. She has regularly appeared on Access Hollywood's monthly pet segment showcasing shelter dogs rescued by Best Friends and available for adoption. While assisting with relief efforts in New York following Hurricane Sandy, she worked together with North Shore Animal League, and adopted a puppy from a Long Island shelter.

She has walked the runway for charity fashion shows, such as Susan G. Komen's 8th Annual Fashion For The Cure, Clothes Off Your Back Benefit and The Heart Truth's Red Dress Fall 2011 Collections. In January 2012, she launched her first collaboration with fashion subscription service ShoeDazzle to design the "Eloise" heel and raised over $15,000 for the Kidney Cancer Association. In December 2012, she designed two shoes for ShoeDazzle as part of their Celebrity Shoe Design Program for Charity. Profits from the shoe sales went to the Kidney Cancer Association. After Richards lost her mother to kidney cancer, she dedicated her time to raising awareness and helping the Kidney Cancer Association. In November 2015, Richards and her daughters spent Thanksgiving volunteering and serving food for homeless families.

In June 2018, she joined The Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation's summer theatrical PSA campaign to benefit Brave Beginnings, which funds vital neonatal equipment to U.S. hospitals. Richards filmed a public service announcement that was played at movie theaters nationwide.

Published works

 * Richards, Denise. The Real Girl Next Door. Gallery Books, 2011.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Denise Richards


text:
Rubidium–strontium dating

The rubidium-strontium dating method (Rb-Sr) is a radiometric dating technique, used by scientists to determine the age of rocks and minerals from their content of specific isotopes of rubidium (87Rb) and strontium (87Sr, 86Sr). One of the two naturally occurring isotopes of rubidium, 87Rb, decays to 87Sr with a half-life of 49.23 billion years. The radiogenic daughter, 87Sr, produced in this decay process is the only one of the four naturally occurring strontium isotopes that was not produced exclusively by stellar nucleosynthesis predating the formation of the Solar System. Over time, decay of 87Rb increases the amount of radiogenic 87Sr while the amount of other Sr isotopes remains unchanged.

The ratio 87Sr/86Sr in a mineral sample can be accurately measured using a mass spectrometer. If the amount of Sr and Rb isotopes in the sample when it formed can be determined, the age can be calculated from the increase in 87Sr/86Sr. Different minerals that crystallized from the same silicic melt will all have the same initial 87Sr/86Sr as the parent melt. However, because Rb substitutes for K in minerals and these minerals have different K/Ca ratios, the minerals will have had different starting Rb/Sr ratios, and the final 87Sr/86Sr ratio will not have increased as much in the minerals poorer in Rb. Typically, Rb/Sr increases in the order plagioclase, hornblende, K-feldspar, biotite, muscovite. Therefore, given sufficient time for significant production (ingrowth) of radiogenic 87Sr, measured 87Sr/86Sr values will be different in the minerals, increasing in the same order. Comparison of different minerals in a rock sample thus allows scientists to infer the original 87Sr/86Sr ratio and determine the age of the rock.

In addition, Rb is a highly incompatible element that, during partial melting of the mantle, prefers to join the magmatic melt rather than remain in mantle minerals. As a result, Rb is enriched in crustal rocks relative to the mantle, and 87Sr/86Sr is higher for crust rock than mantle rock. This allows scientists to distinguish magma produced by melting of crust rock from magma produced by melting of mantle rock, even if subsequent magma differentiation produces similar overall chemistry. Scientists can also estimate from 87Sr/86Sr when crust rock was first formed from magma extracted from the mantle, even if the rock is subsequently metamorphosed or even melted and recrystallized. This provides clues to the age of the Earth's continents.

Development of this process was aided by German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, who later went on to discover nuclear fission in December 1938.

Example
For example, consider the case of an igneous rock such as a granite that contains several major Sr-bearing minerals including plagioclase feldspar, K-feldspar, hornblende, biotite, and muscovite. Each of these minerals has a different initial rubidium/strontium ratio dependent on their potassium content, the concentration of Rb and K in the melt and the temperature at which the minerals formed. Rubidium substitutes for potassium within the lattice of minerals at a rate proportional to its concentration within the melt.

The ideal scenario according to Bowen's reaction series would see a granite melt begin crystallizing a cumulate assemblage of plagioclase and hornblende (i.e.; tonalite or diorite), which is low in K (and hence Rb) but high in Sr (as this substitutes for Ca), which proportionally enriches the melt in K and Rb. This then causes orthoclase and biotite, both K rich minerals into which Rb can substitute, to precipitate. The resulting Rb-Sr ratios and Rb and Sr abundances of both the whole rocks and their component minerals will be markedly different. This, thus, allows a different rate of radiogenic Sr to evolve in the separate rocks and their component minerals as time progresses.

Calculating the age
The age of a sample is determined by analysing several minerals within multiple subsamples from different parts of the original sample. The 87Sr/86Sr ratio for each subsample is plotted against its 87Rb/86Sr ratio on a graph called an isochron. If these form a straight line then the subsamples are consistent, and the age probably reliable. The slope of the line dictates the age of the sample.

Given the universal law of radioactive decay and the following rubidium beta decay:, we obtain the expression which describes the growth of strontium-87 from the decay of rubidium-87:$$^{87}_{38}\text{Sr}(t)=~^{87}_{38}\text{Sr}(0) +~^{87}_{37}\text{Rb}(e^{\lambda t}-1)\ ,$$ being the decay constant of rubidium. Furthermore, we consider the number of as a constant, since it is stable and not radiogenic. Hence, $$\frac{^{87}\text{Sr}}{^{86}\text{Sr}} = \left( \frac{^{87}\text{Sr}}{^{86}\text{Sr}} \right)_0 + \frac{^{87}\text{Rb}}{^{86}\text{Sr}}(e^{\lambda t}-1)$$is the isochron equation. After measurements of Rubidum and Strontium concentration in the mineral we can easily determine the age, the t value, of the sample.

Sources of error
Rb-Sr dating relies on correctly measuring the Rb-Sr ratio of a mineral or whole rock sample, plus deriving an accurate 87Sr/86Sr ratio for the mineral or whole rock sample.

Several preconditions must be satisfied before a Rb-Sr date can be considered as representing the time of emplacement or formation of a rock.
 * The system must have remained closed to Rb and Sr diffusion from the time at which the rock formed or fell below the closure temperature (generally considered to be 650 °C);
 * The minerals which are taken from a rock to construct an isochron must have formed in chemical equilibrium with one another or in the case of sediments, be deposited at the same time;
 * The rock must not have undergone any metasomatism which could have disturbed the Rb-Sr system either thermally or chemically

One of the major drawbacks (and, conversely, the most important use) of utilizing Rb and Sr to derive a radiometric date is their relative mobility, especially in hydrothermal fluids. Rb and Sr are relatively mobile alkaline elements and as such are relatively easily moved around by the hot, often carbonated hydrothermal fluids present during metamorphism or magmatism.

Conversely, these fluids may metasomatically alter a rock, introducing new Rb and Sr into the rock (generally during potassic alteration or calcic (albitisation) alteration. Rb-Sr can then be used on the altered mineralogy to date the time of this alteration, but not the date at which the rock formed.

Thus, assigning age significance to a result requires studying the metasomatic and thermal history of the rock, any metamorphic events, and any evidence of fluid movement. A Rb-Sr date which is at variance with other geochronometers may not be useless, it may be providing data on an event which is not representing the age of formation of the rock.

Geochronology
The Rb-Sr dating method has been used extensively in dating terrestrial and lunar rocks, and meteorites. If the initial amount of Sr is known or can be extrapolated, the age can be determined by measurement of the Rb and Sr concentrations and the 87Sr/86Sr ratio. The dates indicate the true age of the minerals only if the rocks have not been subsequently altered.

The important concept in isotopic tracing is that Sr derived from any mineral through weathering reactions will have the same 87Sr/86Sr as the mineral. Although this is a potential source of error for terrestrial rocks, it is irrelevant for lunar rocks and meteorites, as there are no chemical weathering reactions in those environments.

Isotope geochemistry
Initial 87Sr/86Sr ratios are a useful tool in archaeology, forensics and paleontology because the 87Sr/86Sr of a skeleton, sea shell or indeed a clay artefact is directly comparable to the source rocks upon which it was formed or upon which the organism lived. Thus, by measuring the current-day 87Sr/86Sr ratio (and often the 143Nd-144Nd ratios as well) the geological fingerprint of an object or skeleton can be measured, allowing migration patterns to be determined.

Strontium isotope stratigraphy
Strontium isotope stratigraphy relies on recognised variations in the 87Sr/86Sr ratio of seawater over time. The application of Sr isotope stratigraphy is generally limited to carbonate samples for which the Sr seawater curve is well defined. This is well known for the Cenozoic time-scale but, due to poorer preservation of carbonate sequences in the Mesozoic and earlier, it is not completely understood for older sequences. In older sequences diagenetic alteration combined with greater uncertainties in estimating absolute ages due to lack of overlap between other geochronometers (for example U–Th) leads to greater uncertainties in the exact shape of the Sr isotope seawater curve.

title: Rubidium–strontium dating


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Galago

Galagos, also known as bush babies or nagapies (meaning "night monkeys" in Afrikaans ), are small nocturnal primates native to continental, sub-Sahara Africa, and make up the family Galagidae (also sometimes called Galagonidae). They are considered a sister group of the Lorisidae.

According to some accounts, the name "bush baby" comes from either the animal's cries or its appearance. The Ghanaian name aposor is given to them because of their firm grip on branches.

In both variety and abundance, the bush babies are the most successful strepsirrhine primates in Africa, according to the African Wildlife Foundation.

Taxonomic classification and phylogeny
Galagos are currently grouped into six genera. Euoticus is a basal sister taxon to all the other galagids. The 'dwarf' galagids recently grouped under the genus Galagoides have been found, based on genetic data, and supported by analysis of vocalisations and morphology, to actually consist of two clades, which are not sister taxa, in eastern and western/central Africa (separated by the rift valley). The latter are basal to all the other non-Euoticus galagids. The former group is sister to Galago and has been elevated to full genus status as Paragalago. The genera Otolemur and Sciurocheirus are also sisters.

Family Galagidae - galagos, or bushbabies
 * Genus Euoticus, needle-clawed bushbabies
 * Southern needle-clawed bushbaby, E. elegantulus
 * Northern needle-clawed bushbaby, E. pallidus
 * Genus Galago, lesser galagos, or lesser bushbabies
 * Galago senegalensis group
 * Somali bushbaby, G. gallarum
 * Mohol bushbaby, G. moholi
 * Senegal bushbaby, G. senegalensis
 * Galago matschiei group
 * Dusky bushbaby, G. matschiei
 * Genus Galagoides, western dwarf galagos
 * Prince Demidoff's bushbaby, Gs. demidovii
 * Angolan dwarf galago, Gs. kumbirensis
 * Thomas's bushbaby, Gs. thomasi
 * Genus †Laetolia
 * †Laetolia sadimanensis
 * Genus Otolemur, greater galagos, or thick-tailed bushbabies
 * Brown greater galago, O. crassicaudatus
 * Northern greater galago, O. garnettii
 * Silvery greater galago, O. monteiri
 * Genus Paragalago, eastern dwarf galagos
 * Paragalago zanzibaricus group
 * Kenya coast galago, P. cocos
 * Grant's bushbaby, P. granti
 * Zanzibar bushbaby, P. zanzibaricus
 * Paragalago orinus group
 * Uluguru bushbaby, P. orinus
 * Rondo bushbaby, P. rondoensis
 * Genus Sciurocheirus, squirrel galagos
 * Bioko Allen's bushbaby, S. alleni
 * Cross River bushbaby, S. cameronensis
 * Gabon bushbaby, S. gabonensis
 * Makandé squirrel galago, S. makandensis

The phylogeny of Galagidae according to Masters et al., 2017 is as follows:

Characteristics
Galagos have large eyes that give them good night vision in addition to other characteristics, like strong hind limbs, acute hearing, and long tails that help them balance. Their ears are bat-like and allow them to track insects in the dark. They catch insects on the ground or snatch them out of the air. They are fast, agile creatures. As they bound through the thick bushes, they fold their delicate ears back to protect them. They also fold them during rest. They have nails on most of their digits, except for the second toe of the hind foot, which bears a grooming claw. Their diet is a mixture of insects and other small animals, fruit, and tree gums. They have pectinate (comb-like) incisors called toothcombs, and the dental formula: They are active at night.

After a gestation period of 110–133 days, young galagos are born with half-closed eyes and are initially unable to move about independently. After a few (6–8) days, the mother carries the infant in her mouth, and places it on branches while feeding. Females may have singles, twins, or triplets, and may become very aggressive. Each newborn weighs less than 1/2 oz. For the first three days, the infant is kept in constant contact with the mother. The young are fed by the mother for six weeks and can feed themselves at two months. The young grow rapidly, often causing the mother to walk awkwardly as she transports them.

Females maintain a territory shared with their offspring, while males leave their mothers' territories after puberty. Thus social groups consist of closely related females and their young. Adult males maintain separate territories, which overlap with those of the female social groups; generally, one adult male mates with all the females in an area. Males that have not established such territories sometimes form small bachelor groups.

Bush-babies are sometimes kept as pets, although this is not advised because, like many other nonhuman primates, they are a likely sources of diseases that can cross species barriers. Equally, they are very likely to attract attention from customs officials on importation into many countries. Reports from veterinary and zoological sources indicate captive lifetimes of 12.0 to 16.5 years, suggesting a natural lifetime over a decade.

Galagos communicate by calling to each other and by marking their paths with urine. By following the scent of urine, they can land on exactly the same branch every time. Each species produces a unique set of loud calls that have different functions. One function is to identify individuals as members of a particular species across distances. Scientists can recognize all known galago species by their 'loud calls'. At the end of the night, group members use a special rallying call and gather to sleep in a nest of leaves, a group of branches, or a hole in a tree.

Jumping
Galagos have remarkable jumping abilities. The highest reliably reported jump for a galago is 2.25 m. According to a study published by the Royal Society, given the body mass of each animal and the fact that the leg muscles amount to about 25% of this, galago's jumping muscles should perform six to nine times better than those of a frog. This is thought to be due to elastic energy storage in tendons of the lower leg, allowing far greater jumps than would otherwise be possible for an animal of their size. In mid-flight, they tuck their arms and legs close to the body; they bring them out at the last second to grab a branch. In a series of leaps, a galago can cover ten yards in mere seconds. The tail, which is longer than the length of the head and body combined, assists the legs in powering the jumps. They may also hop like a kangaroo or simply run or walk on four legs. Such strong, complicated, and coordinated movements are due to the rostral half of the posterior parietal cortex that is linked to the motor, premotor, and visuomotor areas of the frontal cortex.

Behaviour
Generally, the social structure of the galago has components of both social life and solitary life. This can be seen in their play. They swing off branches or climb high and throw things. Social play includes play fights, play grooming, and following-play. During following-play, two galagos jump sporadically and chase each other through the trees. The older galagos in a group prefer to rest alone, while younger ones are in constant contact with one another. This is observed in the Galago garnetti species. Mothers often leave infants alone for long periods and do not try to stop them from leaving. On the other hand, the offspring tries to stay close to, and initiate social interactions with the mother.

Grooming is a very important part of galago daily life. They often groom themselves before, during, and after rest. Social grooming is done more often by males in the group. Females often reject attempts by males to groom them.

Relationship with humans
The bush baby also refers to a myth that is used to scare children to stay indoors at night. Most likely arising from the baby-like cry, the unusual nature evolved into a myth about a powerful animal that can kidnap humans. It is also said that wild bush babies/galagos in Nigeria can never be found dead on plain ground. Rather, they make a nest of sticks, leaves or branches to die in. Endangerment of the species in sub-Saharan Africa has made this claim difficult to verify.

title: Galago


text:
Talk:Calisota

What's in a name?
The name "Calisota" seems to be a blend of the names of the U.S. states California and Minnesota. How much of the California aspect is expressed, and how much of Minnesota? --Damian Yerrick
 * From what I've seen in stories, Calisota seems to mostly resemble northern California---the name might just be a play on common U.S. state name endings (California, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oklahoma, or something that ends in "-a"/"-ta"/"-ia"). :-)  Anthony Dean July 2, 2005 17:33 (UTC)

Calisota is more like Minnesota than California in one aspect: It has cold, snowy winters. Das Baz 16:08, 8 August 2006 (UTC)
 * But it's got warm, warm summers.
 * I've heard that the name Calisota comes both of them. It has warm summers of California and cold winters of Minnesota.

title: Talk:Calisota


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Peg solitaire

Peg Solitaire, Solo Noble, Solo Goli, Marble Solitaire or simply Solitaire is a board game for one player involving movement of pegs on a board with holes. Some sets use marbles in a board with indentations. The game is known as solitaire in Britain and as peg solitaire in the US where 'solitaire' is now the common name for patience.

The first evidence of the game can be traced back to the court of Louis XIV, and the specific date of 1697, with an engraving made ten years later by Claude Auguste Berey of Anne de Rohan-Chabot, Princess of Soubise, with the puzzle by her side. The August 1697 edition of the French literary magazine Mercure galant contains a description of the board, rules and sample problems. This is the first known reference to the game in print.

The standard game fills the entire board with pegs except for the central hole. The objective is, making valid moves, to empty the entire board except for a solitary peg in the central hole.

Board
There are two traditional boards ('.' as an initial peg, 'o' as an initial hole):

Play
A valid move is to jump a peg orthogonally over an adjacent peg into a hole two positions away and then to remove the jumped peg.

In the diagrams which follow,  indicates a peg in a hole,   emboldened indicates the peg to be moved, and   indicates an empty hole. A blue  is the hole the current peg moved from; a red   is the final position of that peg, a red   is the hole of the peg that was jumped and removed.

Thus valid moves in each of the four orthogonal directions are:

* · o →      Jump to right

o · * →      Jump to left

*     ·  →    Jump down o

o     ·  →    Jump up *

On an English board, the first three moves might be:

· · ·            · · ·             · · ·             · · ·      · * ·             ·  ·             · o ·             ·  · · · · · · · ·    · · ·  · · ·     ·    · · ·     · o o  · · · · · · o · · ·    · · ·  · · ·     · · · · · · ·     · · ·  · · · · · · · · · ·    · · · · · · ·     · · · · · · ·     · · · · · · ·     · · ·             · · ·             · · ·             · · ·     · · ·             · · ·             · · ·             · · ·

Strategy
There are many different solutions to the standard problem, and one notation used to describe them assigns letters to the holes (although numbers may also be used):

English         European a b c            a b c     d e f           y d e f z g h i j k l m     g h i j k l m n o p x P O N     n o p x P O N M L K J I H G     M L K J I H G     F E D           Z F E D Y     C B A             C B A This mirror image notation is used, amongst other reasons, since on the European board, one set of alternative games is to start with a hole at some position and to end with a single peg in its mirrored position. On the English board the equivalent alternative games are to start with a hole and end with a peg at the same position.

There is no solution to the European board with the initial hole centrally located, if only orthogonal moves are permitted. This is easily seen as follows, by an argument from Hans Zantema. Divide the positions of the board into A, B and C positions as follows:

A B C  A B C A B A B C A B C A B C A B C A B C A B C A B C   B C A B C     A B C

Initially with only the central position free, the number of covered A positions is 12, the number of covered B positions is 12, and also the number of covered C positions is 12. After every move the number of covered A positions increases or decreases by one, and the same for the number of covered B positions and the number of covered C positions. Hence after an even number of moves all these three numbers are even, and after an odd number of moves all these three numbers are odd. Hence a final position with only one peg cannot be reached, since that would require that one of these numbers is one (the position of the peg, one is odd), while the other two numbers are zero, hence even.

There are, however, several other configurations where a single initial hole can be reduced to a single peg.

A tactic that can be used is to divide the board into packages of three and to purge (remove) them entirely using one extra peg, the catalyst, that jumps out and then jumps back again. In the example below, the * is the catalyst.:

* · o             o  · ·    →    ·    →          →    o   ·          ·                    o

This technique can be used with a line of 3, a block of 2·3 and a 6-peg L shape with a base of length 3 and upright of length 4.

Other alternate games include starting with two empty holes and finishing with two pegs in those holes. Also starting with one hole here and ending with one peg there. On an English board, the hole can be anywhere and the final peg can only end up where multiples of three permit. Thus a hole at a can only leave a single peg at a, p, O or C.

Studies on peg solitaire
A thorough analysis of the game is known. This analysis introduced a notion called pagoda function which is a strong tool to show the infeasibility of a given generalized peg solitaire problem.

A solution for finding a pagoda function, which demonstrates the infeasibility of a given problem, is formulated as a linear programming problem and solvable in polynomial time.

A paper in 1990 dealt with the generalized Hi-Q problems which are equivalent to the peg solitaire problems and showed their NP-completeness.

A 1996 paper formulated a peg solitaire problem as a combinatorial optimization problem and discussed the properties of the feasible region called 'a solitaire cone'.

In 1999 peg solitaire was completely solved on a computer using an exhaustive search through all possible variants. It was achieved making use of the symmetries, efficient storage of board constellations and hashing.

In 2001 an efficient method for solving peg solitaire problems was developed.

An unpublished study from 1989 on a generalized version of the game on the English board showed that each possible problem in the generalized game has 29 possible distinct solutions, excluding symmetries, as the English board contains 9 distinct 3×3 sub-squares. One consequence of this analysis is to put a lower bound on the size of possible "inverted position" problems, in which the cells initially occupied are left empty and vice versa. Any solution to such a problem must contain a minimum of 11 moves, irrespective of the exact details of the problem.

It can be proved using abstract algebra that there are only 5 fixed board positions where the game can successfully end with one peg.

Solutions to the English game
The shortest solution to the standard English game involves 18 moves, counting multiple jumps as single moves:

This solution was found in 1912 by Ernest Bergholt and proven to be the shortest possible by John Beasley in 1964.

This solution can also be seen on a page that also introduces the Wolstenholme notation, which is designed to make memorizing the solution easier.

Other solutions include the following list. In these, the notation used is
 * List of starting holes
 * Colon
 * List of end target pegs
 * Equals sign
 * Source peg and destination hole (the pegs jumped over are left as an exercise to the reader)
 * , or / (a slash is used to separate 'chunks' such as a six-purge out)

x:x=ex,lj,ck,Pf,DP,GI,JH,mG,GI,ik,gi,LJ,JH,Hl,lj,jh,CK,pF,AC,CK,Mg,gi,ac,ck,kI,dp,pF,FD,DP,Pp,ox x:x=ex,lj,xe/hj,Ki,jh/ai,ca,fd,hj,ai,jh/MK,gM,hL,Fp,MK,pF/CK,DF,AC,JL,CK,LJ/PD,GI,mG,JH,GI,DP/Ox j:j=lj,Ik,jl/hj,Ki,jh/mk,Gm,Hl,fP,mk,Pf/ai,ca,fd,hj,ai,jh/MK,gM,hL,Fp,MK,pF/CK,DF,AC,JL,CK,LJ/Jj i:i=ki,Jj,ik/lj,Ik,jl/AI,FD,CA,HJ,AI,JH/mk,Hl,Gm,fP,mk,Pf/ai,ca,fd,hj,ai,jh/gi,Mg,Lh,pd,gi,dp/Ki e:e=xe/lj,Ik,jl/ck,ac,df,lj,ck,jl/GI,lH,mG,DP,GI,PD/AI,FD,CA,JH,AI,HJ/pF,MK,gM,JL,MK,Fp/hj,ox,xe d:d=fd,xe,df/lj,ck,ac,Pf,ck,jl/DP,KI,PD/GI,lH,mG,DP,GI,PD/CK,DF,AC,LJ,CK,JL/MK,gM,hL,pF,MK,Fp/pd b:b=jb,lj/ck,ac,Pf,ck/DP,GI,mG,JH,GI,PD/LJ,CK,JL/MK,gM,hL,pF,MK,Fp/xo,dp,ox/xe/AI/BJ,JH,Hl,lj,jb b:x=jb,lj/ck,ac,Pf,ck/DP,GI,mG,JH,GI,PD/LJ,CK,JL/MK,gM,hL,pF,MK,Fp/xo,dp,ox/xe/AI/BJ,JH,Hl,lj,ex a:a=ca,jb,ac/lj,ck,jl/Ik,pP,KI,lj,Ik,jl/GI,lH,mG,DP,GI,PD/CK,DF,AC,LJ,CK,JL/dp,gi,pd,Mg,Lh,gi/ia a:p=ca,jb,ac/lj,ck,jl/Ik,pP,KI,lj,Ik,jl/GI,lH,mG,DP,GI,PD/CK,DF,AC,LJ,CK,JL/dp,gi,pd,Mg,Lh,gi/dp

Brute force attack on standard English peg solitaire
The only place it is possible to end up with a solitary peg is the centre, or the middle of one of the edges; on the last jump, there will always be an option of choosing whether to end in the centre or the edge.

Following is a table over the number (Possible Board Positions) of possible board positions after n jumps, and the possibility of the same peg moved to make a further jump (No Further Jumps). Interesting to note is that the shortest way to fail the game is in six moves, and the solution (besides its rotations and reflections) is unique. An example of this is as follows: 4 → 16; 23 → 9; 14 → 16; 17 → 15; 19 → 17; 31 → 23. (In this notation, the pegs are numbered from left to right, starting with 0, and moving down each row and to the far left once each row is marked.)

NOTE: If one board position can be rotated and/or flipped into another board position, the board positions are counted as identical.

Since there can only be 31 jumps, modern computers can easily examine all game positions in a reasonable time.

The above sequence "PBP" has been entered as A112737 in OEIS. Note that the total number of reachable board positions (sum of the sequence) is 23,475,688, while the total number of possible board positions is 8,589,934,590 (33bit-1) (2^33), so only about 2.2% of all possible board positions can be reached starting with the center vacant.

It is also possible to generate all board positions. The results below have been obtained using the mCRL2 toolset (see the peg_solitaire example in the distribution).

In the results below, it has generated all the board positions it really reached starting with the center vacant and finishing in the central hole.

Solutions to the European game
There are 3 initial non-congruent positions that have solutions. These are:

1)          0 1 2 3 4 5 6         0     o · ·         1   · · · · ·         2 · · · · · · ·         3 · · · · · · ·         4 · · · · · · ·         5   · · · · ·         6     · · · Possible solution: [2:2-0:2, 2:0-2:2, 1:4-1:2, 3:4-1:4, 3:2-3:4, 2:3-2:1, 5:3-3:3, 3:0-3:2, 5:1-3:1, 4:5-4:3, 5:5-5:3, 0:4-2:4, 2:1-4:1, 2:4-4:4, 5:2-5:4, 3:6-3:4, 1:1-1:3, 2:6-2:4, 0:3-2:3, 3:2-5:2, 3:4-3:2, 6:2-4:2, 3:2-5:2, 4:0-4:2, 4:3-4:1, 6:4-6:2, 6:2-4:2, 4:1-4:3, 4:3-4:5, 4:6-4:4, 5:4-3:4, 3:4-1:4, 1:5-1:3, 2:3-0:3, 0:2-0:4]

2)          0 1 2 3 4 5 6         0     · · ·         1   · · o · ·         2 · · · · · · ·         3 · · · · · · ·         4 · · · · · · ·         5   · · · · ·         6     · · · Possible solution: [1:1-1:3, 3:2-1:2, 3:4-3:2, 1:4-3:4, 5:3-3:3, 4:1-4:3, 2:1-4:1, 2:6-2:4, 4:4-4:2, 3:4-1:4, 3:2-3:4, 5:1-3:1, 4:6-2:6, 3:0-3:2, 4:5-2:5, 0:2-2:2, 2:6-2:4, 6:4-4:4, 3:4-5:4, 2:3-2:1, 2:0-2:2, 1:4-3:4, 5:5-5:3, 6:3-4:3, 4:3-4:1, 6:2-4:2, 3:2-5:2, 4:0-4:2, 5:2-3:2, 3:2-1:2, 1:2-1:4, 0:4-2:4, 3:4-1:4, 1:5-1:3, 0:3-2:3]

and 3)          0 1 2 3 4 5 6         0     · · ·         1   · · · · ·         2 · · · o · · ·         3 · · · · · · ·         4 · · · · · · ·         5   · · · · ·         6     · · · Possible solution: [2:1-2:3, 0:2-2:2, 4:1-2:1, 4:3-4:1, 2:3-4:3, 1:4-1:2, 2:1-2:3, 0:4-0:2, 4:4-4:2, 3:4-1:4, 6:3-4:3, 1:1-1:3, 4:6-4:4, 5:1-3:1, 2:6-2:4, 1:4-1:2, 0:2-2:2, 3:6-3:4, 4:3-4:1, 6:2-4:2, 2:3-2:1, 4:1-4:3, 5:5-5:3, 2:0-2:2, 2:2-4:2, 3:4-5:4, 4:3-4:1, 3:0-3:2, 6:4-4:4, 4:0-4:2, 3:2-5:2, 5:2-5:4, 5:4-3:4, 3:4-1:4, 1:5-1:3]

Board variants
Peg solitaire has been played on other size boards, although the two given above are the most popular. It has also been played on a triangular board, with jumps allowed in all 3 directions. As long as the variant has the proper "parity" and is large enough, it will probably be solvable.

A common triangular variant has five pegs on a side. A solution where the final peg arrives at the initial empty hole is not possible for a hole in one of the three central positions. An empty corner-hole setup can be solved in ten moves, and an empty midside-hole setup in nine (Bell 2008):

Video game
On June 26, 1992, a video game based on peg solitaire was released for the Game Boy. Titled simply Solitaire, the game was developed by Hect. In North America, DTMC released the game as Lazlos' Leap.

In popular culture
Cracker Barrel features the game at every table at their locations. The board featured is triangular with 15 total holes.

In Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, the main antagonist, Vincent Volaju, spends most of his free time playing peg solitaire. The vector for his planned Bioterrorism attack, a type of nanobot, is stored in peg solitaire marbles.

title: Peg solitaire