Causes of the Development of Pakistans Banking Sector

Causes of the Development of Pakistans Banking Sector ABSTRACT The objective of this paper is to examine the determinants of development of banking sector from the perspective of Real GDP, Discount rate, Trade openness and Financial Liberalization by using annual data from 1970 to 2007. In this study, Liquid Liabilities, Private sector credit and Domestic credit are used as indicator of banking sector development. The finding of this research shows negative relationship between Trade openness and development of banking sector development. Discount rate is having a significant impact on banking sector development when Private sector credit and Domestic credit is used as the indicator while Real GDP is found significant when Liquid Liabilities and Domestic credit is used as indicator of Banking sector Development. Generalized form of data has been used in this study. Keywords: Banking Sector development, Real GDP, Trade openness, Discount Rate, Financial Liberalization INTRODUCTION The financial sector of Pakistan has shown a substantial growth in past few years, however there is still need for continuous development. The financial sector of Pakistan consists of a variety of specialized financial institutions à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" commercial banks, DFIs, NBFCs, micro finance banks, Islamic banks, Modarbas, Stock Exchange and Insurance companies. Thus the whole financial sector of Pakistan offers a wide range of products and services to its customers. (Zaidi, 2005) states that growth of financial sector is significantly related with economic growth therefore, country needs well developed financial sector in order to fully utilize the financial resources. Banking system has a significant importance in financial market. Banking Sector of Pakistan is an important financial intermediary and responsible for the economic growth in the country. In 1990, Denationalization of Government owned banks have changed the overall scenario of the banking sector of Pakistan. After the amendments in banking companiesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ ordinance, Muslim Commercial Bank (MCB) and Allied bank Limited (ABL) were denationalized in 1991 and 1993 respectively. The process of denationalization remains suspended for numbers of years and was restarted in early 2000s, when United Bank Limited (UBL) was privatized. In 2004, Habib Bank Limited (HBL) was also denationalized and due to which, the asset share of public sector banks was reduced to 25% at that time. In the last decade, state bank of Pakistan has made several efforts in promoting the Islamic modes of financing. In 2002, the first Islamic bank was established under the name of Meezan bank. Since then, the number of Islamic banks has been opened. Various traditional ban ks are now opening Islamic specialized branches. At the end of 2009, total assets of the Islamic banking have reached to 366.3 billions and the deposits in Islamic banks have reached to 282.6 billions  [1]  . At the end of calendar year 2009, there are 9522 total branches of banks in Pakistan which shows an increase of 376 branches in banking sector from the 3rd quarter of 2009. Moreover, the asset base of banking sector has shown a growth of 7 percent over the last quarter. (Yasmin, Jehan, Chaudhary, 2006) explains that after independence in 1947, Pakistan avoided trade openness because of weak industrial structure. In 1960à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s, industrial base was laid and manufacturing industry expanded widely in Pakistan. However, industrial expansion face setback in 1970à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s due to nationalization of industries. In 1980à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s, IMF and World Bank provided facilities to the Pakistan in order to initiate the financial restructuring in country. A loan of $150 million and $200 Million was provided for this purpose under à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Financial sector adjustment loanà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? in 1989 and 1997 respectively. Another project named as financial sector deepening and Intermediation project was initiated in 1995. The estimated worth of that project was $216 million. (Hanif, 2002) Despite of the remarkable performance since last two decades, the banking sector of Pakistan is less developed and remains small in relation to the economy, when it is compared to the other banking sectors of the world. This shows that a number of financial and banking needs are still ignored and that much of the economic potential of Pakistan is not achieved yet. LITERATURE REVIEW (Christopoulos Tsionas, 2004) states there is no one opinion of economist on the issue of financial development and growth of economy. (Pagano, 1993) describes that savings are mobilized towards the productive investment due to financial deepening which helps in improving corporate governance. (Khan Qayyum, 2007) says there are three major channels through which financial development can affect economic growth (i) marginal productivity of capital can be increased (ii) savings are directed towards the investment (iii) level of private saving rate can be increased. The relationship of economic growth and financial development was first discussed by (Goldsmith, 1969), (McKinnon, 1973) and (Shaw, 1973). Their study shows that there is a positive relationship between financial development and the level of output i.e. when the financial market will increase the credit level, the investment will increase thus, showing that real income and real interest rate is a positive function of financial development. (Yu Gan, 2010) study shows that due to positive real interest rate, the mobilization of savings of banks increases and it also increases the growth with the increase in volume and productivity of capital. (Yanikkaya, 2003) argues that trade openness has a significant impact on the GDP share. In developing countries, trade openness creates new opportunities to increase the growth process and hence the unemployment level decrease. (Jin, 2000) states that trade openness facilitates in establishing the development process. Moreover, local technology and production process can be improved through trade liberalization. One school of thoughts is of view that the financial liberalization is also a major contributor towards the financial development in developing countries. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Financial liberalization means the deregulation of domestic financial markets and liberalization of the capital account.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? (Attaullah, Cockerill, Le, 2004) empirically shows that the effectiveness of banking sector is improved following the financial liberalization. (Bekaert, Harvey, Lundblad, 2005) Suggests that there is a significant relationship between financial liberalization and economic growth. However, (Stiglitz, 2000) argues that increase in financial liberalization enhances the macro economic vulnerability of nations and chances of crises becomes significant. The study of (Gong, Lee, Chen, 2004) supported the fact that increase in financial liberalization can cause crisis. (Wyplosz, 2001) suggested that financial liberalization is effective if the objective is to increase the competition and d ecrease the monopoly powers. However, financial liberalization is quite risky for developing countries. Many developing countries in Asia and Europe have grown faster even with strong financial restraints. MODEL SPECIFICATION Based on the above literature, we can propose that in Pakistan, banking sector development is a function of real Gross Domestic Products (RGDP), Discount date (DR) and Trade openness (TO) and Financial Liberalization (FL). This can also be shown as BSD Pak = f (RGDP, RI, TO, FL) Where, BSD Pak = Banking Sector Development of Pakistan In this study, we have used following models which are estimated by using least square techniques. In model 1, we will use Liquid liabilities as the indicator of banking sector development. In model 2, Private Sector Credit will be used as the indicator of banking sector development where as in model 3, domestic credit will be used as the indicator of banking sector development. (Yu Gan, 2010) ln LL= ÃŽÂ ²o+ÃŽÂ ²1ln RGDP+ ÃŽÂ ²2 DR + ÃŽÂ ²3TO+ ÃŽÂ ²4FL + e ln PRI= ÃŽÂ ²o+ ÃŽÂ ²1ln RGDP+ ÃŽÂ ²2 DR + ÃŽÂ ²3 TO+ ÃŽÂ ²4FL+ e ln DC= ÃŽÂ ²o+ÃŽÂ ²1ln RGDP+ ÃŽÂ ²2 DR + ÃŽÂ ²3 TO+ ÃŽÂ ²4FL+ e where, ln LL= Natural logarithm of liquid liabilities ln PRI= Natural logarithm of Private sector Credit ln DC= Natural logarithm of Domestic Credit Data source: We have used annual data from 1970 to 2007 in this study. The data is obtained from the World Bank database and international financial statistics. However, Financial Liberalization Index of Pakistan, constructed by (Waliullah, 2010) is used in this study. Real GDP (RGDP) is calculated by using following formula EMPIRICAL METHODOLOGY In this study, Ordinary Least Square (OLS) technique has been used. In order to run the OLS model, order of integration of every variable is determined. There are two methods to examine the order of integration i.e. Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test and Phillps-Perron test. In this study, we will use ADF test for examining weather the data is stationary or non-stationary. We will run co-integration test when all variables becomes stationary at same level. The generalized form of data has been used in this study. In model 1, liquid liabilities have been used as an indicator of banking sector development. Table 1 show that Real GDP, Financial Liberalization and Trade openness are statistically significant and Discount rate is not statistically significant to the development of banking sector in Pakistan. However, Trade openness is inversely related with liquid liabilities which means that increase in trade openness will eventually affects the development of banking sector. While, Real GDP and Financial liberalization have a significant impact on the banking sector development i.e. higher Real GDP and Financial Liberalization in Pakistan will leads towards development of banking sector. R square is (.99) which shows substantial explanation of independent variables in dependent variables. Table 2. OLS Results of Model 2 (Private Sector Credit) Dependent Variable: PRI Method: Least Squares Date: 01/24/11 Time: 16:16 Sample: 1970 2007 Included observations: 38 Variable Coefficient Std. Error t-Statistic Prob. RGDP -7.684614 5.715274 -1.344575 0.1879 TO -7.525119 3.603842 -2.088082 0.0446 DR 25.87713 9.222809 2.805775 0.0084 FL -0.204028 1.108112 -0.184122 0.8550 C 0.033118 0.090551 0.365739 0.7169 R-squared 0.343149 Mean dependent var 0.041883 Adjusted R-squared 0.263531 S.D. dependent var 0.648747 S.E. of regression 0.556741 Akaike info criterion 1.788644 Sum squared resid 10.22868 Schwarz criterion 2.004116 Log likelihood -28.98424 F-statistic 4.309923 Durbin-Watson stat 1.880175 Prob(F-statistic) 0.006483 In model 2, we have used Private sector credit as an indicator of development of banking sector in Pakistan. Results of table 2 indicate that discount rate and trade openness have significant impact on the development of banking sector. However, Trade openness is inversely related to the banking sector development. Financial liberalization and Real GDP are not found statistically significant. R square of model 2 is (.34) which shows that independent variables are explaining 34 % of the dependent variable. OLS Results of Model 3 (Domestic Credit) Dependent Variable: DC Method: Least Squares Date: 01/24/11 Time: 16:20 Sample: 1970 2007 Included observations: 38 Variable Coefficient Std. Error t-Statistic Prob. RGDP 0.289400 0.002316 124.9755 0.0000 TO -0.007190 0.001983 -3.626526 0.0010 DR 0.014020 0.005240 2.675496 0.0115 FL 0.001211 0.000307 3.938439 0.0004 C -6.23E-06 4.61E-06 -1.351692 0.1857 R-squared 0.999939 Mean dependent var -1.15E-05 Adjusted R-squared 0.999931 S.D. dependent var 0.003380 S.E. of regression 2.80E-05 Akaike info criterion -18.00387 Sum squared resid 2.59E-08 Schwarz criterion -17.78840 Log likelihood 347.0735 F-statistic 134392.7 Durbin-Watson stat 1.559156 Prob(F-statistic) 0.000000 In model 3, we have used domestic credit as an indicator of banking sector development. Results of table 3 indicate that all variables are statistically significant to the development of banking sector of Pakistan. R square of model 3 is (.99) which shows that independent variables have a significant impact on the dependent variable. (Goldsmith, 1969) As mentioned above, generalized form of data has been used in this study and numbers of tests have been applied on these three models and there is no serial correlation, heteroscedasticity. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION The results of this study shows that Trade openness is inversely related to the development of banking sector in Pakistan in all three models which validates the findings of (Siddiqui Iqbal, 2005) that Trade openness negatively affects the economic growth of a country. However these results are not according to the findings of (Miller Upadhyay, 2000) which states that trade openness leads to the development of financial sector. Moreover this study also does not support the findings of (Yu Gan, 2010) which states that trade openness have no impact on the development of banking sector. In case of Liquid liabilities as indicator of banking sector development, it is clear that Real GDP and Financial liberalization have the significant impact on the development of banking sector of Pakistan. This result is according to the findings of (Yu Gan, 2010) and (Attaullah et al, 2004) which show that Real GDP and Financial Liberalization significantly impact the banking sector development. It means that increase in Real GDP and Financial Liberalization will lead the banking sector of Pakistan towards prosperity. In case of Private sector credit as the indicator of banking sector development, it is found that discount rate is statistically significant to the banking sector development. It means that increase in discount rate will lead towards increase in private sector credit which will eventually results in financial sector development. However, financial liberalization was found inversely related to the banking sector development and Real GDP was not found significant which is against the findings of (Yu Gan, 2010) which identifies that Real GDP has a significant impact on the development of financial sector of Pakistan when Private sector credit is taken as indicator of banking sector development. In case of Domestic credit as indicator of development of banking sector, results shows that all four variables are statistically significant to the financial sector development which are according to the findings of (Rajan Zingales, 1998), (Cetorelli Gambera, 2001) which states that Financial Liberalization and Real GDP significantly impact the development of financial sector. PRACTICAL IMPLEMENTATIONS FOR BANKING SECTOR On the basis of the findings of this study, we can conclude that trade openness is having inverse relationship with the banking sector development. As a result of Trade openness, the less developed banking sector of Pakistan faces tough competition from the developed financial sector of other countries. Moreover, increase in trade openness increases the countryà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s exposure to international shocks i.e. if any economy faces will suffer a crisis, there will be more chance of transferring crisis in Pakistan. Discount rate is also found significant in this study when Private sector credit and Domestic credit was used as an indicator of banking sector development. When the discount rate will be high, financial institutions will be encouraged to get loan from state bank of Pakistan. Banks usually uses discount rate as benchmark interest rate when they further lend the money to borrowers. So increasing the discount rate will eventually lead the banking sector to development.

Raising the Driving Age

For at least the last ten years, the issue of whether or not to raise the driving age to 18 years old has been a touchy subject on every level of the spectrum; from State Highway Safety Association to teenagers and everybody in between. Although everyone has some degree of approval that raising the driving age would be a good idea no one has really put forth the effort to actually have it come to pass. This has lead to the ongoing debate of whether it should even be a consideration anymore.There are several reasons that establishing the driving age at 18 is a legitimate idea. First, by having the driving age moved to the minimum of 18 this can be both environmentally and economically commendable. Also, teenagers under the age of 18 are more mentally underdeveloped when it comes to making sound decisions on the road, which then leads teenagers to having one of the highest fatality rates involving automobiles. Global warming has become key issue all over the world, especially in more o ver-crowded counties and cities, due to higher volume of emissions being released into the air.In the year 2000, the Carbon Emissions that are released into the air by cars in the United States is 302 Million Metric tons (MMTc) (Environmental). In that same year, there were 190 million licensed drivers in the United States, and 9,743,000 were drivers under the age of 19 (U. S), that’s five percent of the population. I know it doesn’t seem like that much but when you take in consideration the total emissions being released into the air and multiply it by the number of teenage drivers, that will reduce the amount of emissions by 15. MMTc. People are desperate to help stop global warming; one way we can do this is to reduce the amount of drivers on the roads and create a more accessible public transportation in rural areas. Increasing the age for driving would also be beneficial to parents of teen drivers due to the fact that insuring a teen driver is very expensive. A re cent study, in 2009-2010 for a one-car family to insure their teen-driver would raise their premium 42 percent, 58 percent for a two-car family and 62 percent for a three-car family (Schultz).An average of $620 dollars a year is what parents pay to add their child to their insurance (Bradford). That is one child, I come from a family of five and eleven years ago, when I turned sixteen my parents already had two teen drivers on their auto insurance and we were living off two teacher salaries. By the year 2000 the average teacher in Texas was making 37,576 (IES); that would leave them with a combined income of just over 75 thousand a year.Paying an average of $620 dollars per teen driver wouldn’t have gone over well with living expenses, so needless to say, I got my divers license but I wasn’t able to drive until I was 18. There are always two sides to an argument, Parents grow weary of driving their kids for one place to the next; interrupting their own busy schedules t o drive their teen to their next social event. Bill Van Tassel, AAA’s National manager for driving training programs says â€Å"We have parents who are pretty much tired of chauffeuring their kids around, and just want them to be able to drive† (Davis).This is completely understandable, with today’s busy world no one has time for anything but does it really merit putting a population of underdeveloped minds behind the wheel for our own convenience? Which brings me to my next point; are teens mentally mature enough to be granted with the responsibility of driving a car? In 2005, new findings in brain research at the National Institutes of Health explain why efforts to protect teen drivers usually fail. The scientists at the NIH in Bethesda, Md. have found that a part of the brain that weighs risks, makes judgments and controls impulse behavior which is referred to as â€Å"the executive branch† is still developing in teenage years and isn’t fully ma tured until the age of 25 (Davis). These findings should be proof alone that teens are too immature to handle the responsibilities that come with driving a car. Teens are already emotional and compulsive more so then most adults, giving them keys to a vehicle could be potentially one of the worse ideas in history.Teens don’t process consequences the same way adults do, they rely more on the emotional part of their brains to make their decisions. Which is why when a teen is driving 15 to 20 miles over the speed limit the part of their brain that processes thrill is working brilliantly; But the part that cautions of negative consequences, is all but useless, explains Jay Giedd, chief of brain imaging in the child psychiatric unit at the National Institute of Mental Health (Davis). Parents see their newly licensed teen river as additional help for running errands and taking younger siblings to events and practices, but when it comes to handling issues that may arise on the road to and from their destination; teenagers just don’t have the mental maturity to consider the consequences of risky behavior. When I was still in high school two friends of mine were bragging one morning of their reckless and very dangerous excursion across town in the pouring rain without their windshield wipers on, just because they wanted to see how far they could go.I would advocate this as a true example, that teenagers are indeed too immature and reckless to be given the responsibilities of driving. Of course one would argue that not all teenagers are as immature and irresponsible as most, in fact there are some parents that would make their teen a poster-child for safe driving; but there are always exceptions to the rules. Adolescent drivers no matter how responsible they prove themselves to be don’t have the mental development to properly react to hazardous situations that arise on the road.The research above leads to my next topic, Due to their inability to ass es dangers that come up while driving, a teen driver is more likely to be involved in or the cause of an automobile accident. In 2009, about 3,000 teens in the United States aged 15–19 were killed and  more than 350,000 were treated in emergency departments for injuries suffered in motor-vehicle crashes (CDC). With this information, one would wonder why the driving age has yet to be raised.Yet, despite the increasing number of teens dying in automotive accidents, there has yet to be a successful bill passed to raise the driving age. In September of 2008, lawmakers in Delaware, Florida, Georgia and Massachusetts introduced a bill to raise their driving age to 17; they all failed (Rubin). Some people are lead to believe that raising the driving age will not prevent teen deaths, rather just delay them, because maturity has no weight on teen driving, it’s all down to experience; It is this rational that is keeping teen drivers behind the wheel.Most states have a probatio nary period where teen must follow guidelines such as: * Night driving is prohibited for the first six months unless he/ she are accompanied by a licensed driver. * A passenger limitation of only one passenger under the age of 20 for the first six months unless a parent or guardian is present. * During the second six months only three passengers under 20 (Pabst) These restrictions have had only modest success, but with the judgment center of the teen brain not fully developed there remains a struggle to instill decision making skills in immature drivers (Davis).Most of these restrictions are left to the parents to enforce and these poorly enforced restrictions don’t seem to be helping stop the high volume of deaths due to irresponsible teenager’s being given the right to drive. In 2006, my father was killed in accident involving a teenage driver, who neglected to follow the speed limit, and disregarded the stopped school bus with its lights on, and plowed right into th e back of the vehicle behind my father causing it to hit my father on his motorcycle. I don’t know what she was doing to completely miss the big yellow stopped school bus, and the car right next to it, but it cost my father his life.The only argument against the high rate of death and injury cause by the sober mind of a teenager, are the high number of deaths caused by intoxicated driver. In 2003, 10 percent of the 16-year-old deaths in automobile accidents had a blood alcohol level of 0. 10 or higher compared to the 43 percent of 20- 49 year-olds drivers, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (Davis). The government has made it illegal to drive intoxicated to protect the lives of their people, so why can’t they raise the driving age to save even more lives?Raising the driving age is something that should be taken with the highest regard, but there are people who don’t quite understand the severity of this particular situation and would simply argue that driving there teen around is an inconvenience to them and a frustration for their teen. In actuality by having the driving age moved to the minimum for 18 can be both environmentally and economically commendable. Also, teenagers under the age of 18 are more mentally immature when it comes to making sound decisions on the road, which then leads teenagers to having one of the highest fatality rates involving automobiles.Having an understanding of the matter is very important; people shouldn’t ignore this topic just because it doesn’t fit into today’s busy and ever growing world.

Top Guide of Argumentative Essay Topics Technology Privacy

Top Guide of Argumentative Essay Topics Technology Privacy When it has to do with writing an argumentative essay, the main matter to do is to select a topic and an argument you may really get behind. When picking a topic make sure you like it, as you should devote days or even weeks on it, so it's important to stay motivated regarding the matter you discuss. The topic chosen for the purpose should be attractive in the view of many readers. At some time, you're likely to be requested to compose an argumentative essay. To put it differently, it's a controversial matter. To put it differently, you want to attempt to comprehend where they're coming from. Type of Argumentative Essay Topics Technology Privacy Argumentative essays are very typical in academic writing and are frequently a significant part writing in all disciplines. Argumentative topics can be a number of the widest-reaching essay assignments on Earth. Argumentative writings is a particular sort of a paper. Examine the list to choose the topic which can help you compose a creative essay for your middle school class. Inspiration to make your own advertising or media argumentative essay topics isn't tricky to discover. Then take a look at a list of argumentative essay suggestions to help you begin. If you decide on boring, bland or irrelevant topics, you are not going to have an extremely prosperous paper. New Step by Step Roadmap for Argumentative Essay Topics Technology Privacy There are invariably a vast range of opinions on the field of technology, and here are our favourite things to consider on the subject. Advertising and the media are now nearly inseparable from society for a whole. What You Should Do to Find Out About Argumentative Essay Topics Technology Privacy Before You're Left Behind For instance, in college, you might be requested to compose a paper from the opposing perspective. Our writers are highly competent so you are able to place your order for any sort of custom essay with no hesitation. It is crucial to check reviews about essay writing services in order to be confident they can deliver your task before the deadline. An argumentative essay example will reveal the should possess some crucial components which make it better in the practice of convincing. Simply speaking, an argument essay has to be logical from starting to end. An argumentative essay is a kind of essay that presents arguments about each side of a problem. Besides, don't forget that the secret to a thriving argumentative essay is in finding suitable evidence to back up your opinion. Whether it's an argumentative or expository essay which you're writing, it is essential to develop a clear thesis statement and a very clear sound reasoning. It is preferable to use templates since they include all necessary formatting elements. By now you're probably prepared to observe an exemplary argumentative essay outline template. Essay writing per se is no simple job to do. You have to have skills to compose a very good essay. To do so, you want to get a guide to compose the very best essay on the selected topic. You can also see academic essay. The essay should have a little structure, unlike a normal essay. You can also see analytical essay. An argumentative essay is among the many academic essay types. Get the Scoop on Argumentative Essay Topics Technology Privacy Before You're Too Late A very good persuasive argument will use the latest data and data from verified sources. You don't need to find super technical with legal argumentative essays, but make sure to do your homework on what the recent laws about your preferred topic actually say. Care ought to be taken that the data utilized in the essay is related to the topic. You will then have to approach this issue by gathering, generating, and evaluating credible sources to back up your evidence. Argumentative Essay Topics Technology Privacy Can Be Fun for Everyone No matter the sort of essay you're writing, a strong plan will allow you to have a larger impact. An outline is an excellent tool to remember what you're planning to write about and to steer clear of a fear of getting started. The first thing you're likely to have to do is to choose a topic that has more than one clear side. Without a fantastic evidence, nobody is likely to believe my words.

Celebrate Holidays and Special Days in February

Calendars: January | February | March | April | May | June |July | August | September | October | November | December Celebrate a holiday or special day every day in February. Learn about holidays you never heard of. Be sure to check back every day for recipes, crafts, games and lots more fun things to do. Enjoy! February Icons - These icons match the events on the February Fundays Calendar. They are designed to be used as each event is learned about. The icons can be glued onto the February Coloring Calendar. February Seasonal Specials: Black History Month - Famous Firsts PrintablesDental Health Month PrintablesWinter Fun; Winter PrintablesGroundhog Day Printables Valentines Day Fun: Valentines Day PrintablesValentines Day CardsPrintable Valentines Day Coupon Book for KidsValentines Day PoemsValentines Day TeaValentines Day Fun February 1 - Robinson Crusoe, Space Shuttle Disaster and Baked Alaska Robinson Crusoe DaySpace Shuttle Columbia DisasterNational Baked Alaska Day February 2 - Groundhogs, Zeppelins and Treaties Groundhog DayZeppelin Crashes into North SeaTreaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Signed February 3 - Voting, Income Tax and Carrot Cake 15th Amendment RatifiedIncome Tax BirthdayNational Carrot Cake DayElmos Birthday February 4 - Lindbergh, Washington and Galoshes National Stuffed Mushroom DayCharles Lindberghs BirthdayFirst US Presidential ElectionSnickers Candy Bar 1st For Sale February 5 - Weather, Mexico and Family Leave National Weatherpersons Day; Weather PrintablesMexico: Constitution DayFamily and Medical Leave ActHank Aarons Birthday February 6 - Reagan, Massachusetts and Babe Ruth Ronald Reagans BirthdayBabe Ruths BirthdayMassachusetts DayNational Frozen Yogurt Day February 7 - The Beatles, John Deere and Spacewalk The Beatles Tour AmericaJohn Deeres BirthdayFirst Untethered SpacewalkCharles Dickens BirthdayNational Fettuccine Alfredo DayJohn Deeres Birthday February 8 - Boy Scouts, Radios and Kites Radio Installed in White HouseKite Flying DayBoy Scouts Day February 9 - Harrison, Hershey and Toothaches William Harrisons BirthdayHersheys Chocolate Founded; Chocolate PrintablesToothache DayThe Beatles make first live TV AppearanceNational Bagels and Lox Day February 10 - Umbrellas, Fire Extinguishers and Swimming Umbrella DayFire Extinguisher PatentMark Spitz BirthdaySchool Day February 11 - Edison, Inventors and Japan Thomas Edisons BirthdayNational Inventors DayJapan: Foundation DayDont Cry Over Spilled Milk Day February 12 - Abraham Lincoln, First Ladies and Savannah Abraham Lincolns BirthdayLouisa Adams BirthdaySavannah Founded February 13 - First Ladies, Magazines and Germany Bess Trumans BirthdayFirst Magazine PublishedGerman ReunificationPenicillin 1st Used On Humans February 14 - Valentines Day, States and Ferris Wheels Valentines Day Activities - Printable Valentines Day Cards and ActivitiesArizona Admission DayOregon Admission DayFirst Presidential PhotographFerris Wheel DayRead to Your Child Day February 15 - Susan B. 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