October 19, 2007

Today is the 20th anniversary of Black Monday - the great 1987 stock market crash. How will you celebrate?


Remember it like it was yesterday...

Nice thing about a good crash is that people do remember it (for awhile) and don't do such stupid things.

You know, like lending trillions to people who had no chance of ever paying it back. You know, like buying an apartment in Phoenix for $1 million. You know, like having no oversight of mortgage brokers and realtors as they conned America. You know, like doing massive insider stock sales (while having their company buy back stock).

Happy 20th Anniversary, Mr. Stock Market Crash. How's today's market lookin' to ya?

After '87, today's fear is the mini-crash

20 years after the Dow plunged 22% in a day, Wall Streeters aren't too worried about a repeat. But what about a smaller version of that disaster?

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A lot of Wall Streeters are reminiscing this week about where they were during the 1987 crash. The more recent tumult - in 2001 and even earlier this year - gets lost in the chatter.

The combination of circuit breakers instituted by the NYSE, and the Federal Reserve's willingness to intervene, means a crash on the level of Oct. 19, 1987 - in which the Dow plunged 22.6 percent on a 508-point loss - probably won't happen again.

But that doesn't mean the market won't - and hasn't already - experienced severe mini-crashes that crush investors and roil the markets for days or even weeks at a time.

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

PPT will buy futures before the open. Market up 1% before noon.

Anonymous said...

Funny thing. Nobody really knew it was going on unless you were in the brokerage business or caught it on the radio or sat around watching CNN which was like watching paint dry back then. No CNBC to give a play by play. Just the network news reporting on an event that most people didn't think much of. The Dow was not seen as such an important indicator of economic health back then (it really was though, more so than it is today).

Me? I worked late that day, went out to happy hour and didn't worry about the stocks that I didn't own or the house that I was renting.

beebs said...

I remember it well. I was 100% invested and just got my wife the week before to put 1/3rd of her money in the stock market.

I spent that evening convincing her the market would bounce back.

beebs

Anonymous said...

I shall wave my wang in defiance of dopes (really an alias for w posting on HP...)

I can't believe such a man-made mess has been allowed to happen. Watch for an effort to bring forth The Apocalypse just to cover up the mess now unfolding.

Anonymous said...

Classic case of fascist government that keeps the sheeple scare. Booo, sheeple, the terrorist bogeyman is under your bed....run, run, vote for Giuliani. We want you scare like a little sissy so we can take advantage of you. That goes to you too, idiotic "security moms".

Anonymous said...

It would be great irony if it crashed again today

Anonymous said...

More like 1929 not 1987

Feds Gloomy as Mortgage Meltdown Continues

Big banks organize effort to contain the damage

Except for the surprisingly perky and upbeat Fox Business Network, which debuted with giggles and grins yesteday, the mood in financial circles is one of tight-lipped apprehension, with small beads of sweat increasingly visible on very important foreheads.

Perhaps trying to master the understatement that was the hallmark of his predecessor, Fed Chief Ben Bernanke last night declared that “uncertainty remains unusually high.”

Bernanke told the New York Economic Club that a full recovery isn't likely to happen anytime soon but he declared the banking system sound.

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. was in Washington speaking to a Georgetown University law forum. He also offered a pessimistic view of the housing slump and called on Congress to offer help to hard-pressed homeowners and to adopt tighter new mortgage regulations.

The housing slump is "the most significant current risk to our economy,” Paulson said.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/10/fed.html

Anonymous said...

The crash of 1987 marked the begining of the "derivatives" swindle. This is how that genius "Sir Alan Greensperm" saved the markets and destroyed the economy.

Anonymous said...

I would not be surprised if they could divert some of the $10 BILLION that goes to Iraq every month to the stock market to keep the Kudlows happy....

Anonymous said...

Notice how we had all of our stock market crashes under republican rule.

Remember, republicans are evil.

Anonymous said...

My net worth took a hit that day but I added some Exxon and Bank of America a few days later.
Patience, my friends.

Paige Turner said...

RE: Today being the 20th anniversary of Black Monday...

Don't be ridiculous! How could the stock market crash after the Fed just lowered interest rates? I'll just take a peek at the stock ticker and...

What the fu¢k!?!

The stock market really is CRASHING!!!

V.L.

Anonymous said...

Walked into work about 11:00AM and checked on the market upon logging on- proceeded to let out a big WOOHOO!!!

Anonymous said...

It would be great irony if it crashed again today



The market is down -208 on bad earnings, so far.

W.C. Varones said...

I'm celebrating with Jan 50 QQQQ puts.

Anonymous said...

I am planning on throwing a party.
A small get together. Two brokers have pledged to bring chips, and four of the others have volunteered to bring two tubs of sour cream and two packets of onion soup mix, which they got from their local brown bag distributors at the end of last month. Life is good.

Anonymous said...

Classic case of fascist government that keeps the sheeple scare.

There are men in black trenchcoats outside your apartment

Anonymous said...

All the crashes occurred during Republican rule, true....

.... but not all of the bubbles bubbled upwards during Republican rule.

Voodoo-economics doesn't help, true, but there is only so much that the government can do to encourage or discourage idiotic mass insanity. Admittedly, supply-side voodoo-economics enthusiasts try very hard to encourage crazy-ass market fever, but they cannot do it without the enthusiastic participation of masses upon masses of Fools and Greedy-Guts and Believers-In-Magic of any and all political persuasions, left right and centre.

P.S.: Prices in Vancouver,BC, Canada went up AGAIN. Now the median house price there is about $700,000; which is a 100% increase in a seven-year period.....

.....remember that old TV ad from the late 70s/early 80s for a kiddies bathtime product? (" MISTER MISTER MISTER BUBBLES!!! POP! hahahahhahahaha!!!!!!!")

Anonymous said...

Hmmm smells like....panic

Anonymous said...

Don't forget the minicrash of October 1997 !

Anonymous said...

(yawn) Still up significantly for the year. It's down on panic and sheeple mentality. Smile and nod, move along, nothing to see here.

When it drops down 10% and is still there 6 months later, gimme a call.

Anonymous said...

soon 1 ounce of gold will buy a house...

Anonymous said...

Notice how we had all of our stock market crashes under republican rule.

You are a moron - look at the dates of the last crash (dot.com crash) and then look at who was in the whitehouse.

Marky Mark

Agent #777 said...

I kinda celebrated with 5035% profit on IMBVD. Bought 10-03 for .10, just bought the shares to put for 14.865.

Do the math:

5.135 / .10

Sadly did not put down much money, but I NEVER made a 5000% return before. Made enough for a nice little vacation though.

Anonymous said...

It may have started earlier but crashed under Bush.

Also, all of our recessions have been under republicans. Check it out.

Anonymous said...

RE: bitterrenter said

"Also, all of our recessions have been under republicans. "

------------------

Republicans like Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s?

Don't you think that the ridiculous Fed Reserve policies for the entire period of 1992-2000 had more to do with the recession of 2001 than anything GW Bush and/or the Republicans did or could possibly have done?

Don't you think that the party that was in power over the course of the several years preceding the recession has more to do with any recession than the party who was in power when the recession struck?

The 1981-82 recession and the 2001 recession had nothing whatsoever to do with the policies or the being in power of either of Reagan or W.Bush respectively.

I also think that the Reagan administration and the W.Bush administration were both terrible administrations.

But I'm not going to blame, among other things, holes in the ozone layer on Reagan just because they first appeared while he happened to be in power.

Anonymous said...

I will celebrate, by remembering my professor who walked into class the next day and explained how he lost 50% of his retirement money and he was 65 yrs old in 1987. I was 20yrs old. When you are out of time, you are out of time. He needed to retire then, for he could not wait. Boomers have overvalued Wall Steet with their retirement money over the last 25 years. When they go to retire around 2010, demographics dictate Wall Steet will have already stolen their money.

Lost Cause said...

I am going to forget about it and wipe my chin in honor of Ronald Reagan.

Anonymous said...

1929: megacrash
1987: crash
1997: minicrash
2007: microcrash

Inflation depreciates crashes...

Anonymous said...

For anyone who really believes that the Recessions occur when Dems are in power, please note: The recession that started at the end of Clinton's term was begat by our dear Republican friend Alan Greenspan who suddenly and unnecessarily raised interest rates by 1/2% just before the election, gee, no partisan agenda there was it? I remember when he did that, thinking "wtf" because the economy was fine, maybe just starting to heat up a little bit. It was doing a 100 times better then then it ever has done under the current Bush administration when Greenspan was lowering interest rates and artificially stimulating the economy for wealthy investors and to lessen the impact of Bush's spending deficits. I suspect Alan Greenspan is now regretting a few things he did especially around 2000 and the first couple years after Bush was elected. His legacy will pay for it. And as for George Bush and his wealthy friends/cronies, they will be caught with their pants down trying to cover up the mess they made of todays economy and screwing the working class. REPUBLICANS equal GREED RUN AMOK. Sorry, Keith, I know you are probably Republican but that is how I feel. By the way, my house is paid for. I am p.o.'d because we should all be living the American Dream right now and not the American nightmare.

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