The 1987 stock market crash
Some 25 years ago, Wall Street saw its biggest one-day percentage slide ever sparking familiar worries about small investors and depressions. The long-term damage wasn’t as severe as the 1929 crash, but the 1980’s bubble pop was spectacular by any measure. Here’s a look at 10 other great market crashes and some of their unusual consequences.
Bailout vote fails — Sept. 29, 2008
The Dow Jones Industrial Average sees its biggest one-day point drop ever after Congress fails to pass the TARP bailout bill. The index slide of more than 700 points ushers in a period of intense instability in the wake of the Lehman Bros. bankruptcy. Here a trader stands outside the New York Stock Exchange.
Flash Crash — May 6, 2010
The first of a new kind of market crash characteristic of high-frequency trading markets. The Dow plunged almost 1,000 points in a matter of minutes, as computer algorithms, which accounted for around half of trading volume at the time, stopped offering bids for shares, prompting huge drops.
1987 STOCK-MARKET CRASH: 25 YEARS AGO TODAY
The floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 19, 1987, when the Dow industrials dropped more than 500 points as panic swept across Wall Street.
Tulip mania in 1637
The mother of all modern manias, Holland’s Tulip mania saw prices for fancy tulip bulbs soar to prices many times a skilled artisan’s annual income. This satirical painting of the time by Brueghel the Younger depicts monkeys earnestly engaged in trading. Look familiar?
The Mississippi Bubble of 1720
John Law, seen here in a portrait by Casimir Balthazar, was an Englishman convicted of manslaughter over a fatal duel in Bloomsbury square in London. He subsequently became French finance minister. He oversaw the creation of a stock company tied to speculation in France’s American territories whose shares subsequently crashed. Law eventually died impoverished in Venice.
South Sea Bubble of 1720
Not to be outdone by the French, the English managed to concoct their first modern market crash centered on trading in a company with absolutely no prospects. Political cronyism, self-dealing, and insider trading characterized this English stock company crash. Does anything ever change?
Black Friday 1869
A genuine American market crash, sparked when financiers James Fisk and Jay Gould sought to exploit political connections to corner the gold market. Gold’s peak price of $162 an ounce wasn’t exceeded for more than 100 years. The scandal tarnished the administration of Ulysses S. Grant, and a subsequent congressional investigation was led by future president James Garfield.
1882 Paris Bourse crash
Triggered by the failure of l’Union Generale, the subsequent carnage threatened almost a quarter of the brokerages on the bourse, until a loan from the Bank of France stabilized the market. On the plus side, painter Paul Gauguin is said to have quit the brokerage business after the crash and moved on to better things.
Panic of 1907
Started by a failed attempt to corner stock in United Copper in October 1907. Subsequent brokerage and bank failures only halted when J.P Morgan convinced other trust-company presidents to provide backing to the Trust Company of America. The crisis ultimately lead to creation of the Federal Reserve system.
1929 market crash
THE stock-market crash. Highly leveraged investors saw fortunes built over a decade melt away in hours as the Roaring ‘20s gave way to the Great Depression. Ultimately led to the creation of several Federal agencies aimed at preventing a repeat.
Mini-crash: Asia financial crisis — Oct. 27, 1997
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slumps 6% triggering global slumps, with the Dow ending the day early, down 554.26 points.
Ronald K - Market Psychologist - The Big Speculator
