Stock Market Crashes Throughout History

Boston Herald (MA)

Dec. 27--The rise and fall of the stock market is quickly becoming the nation's pastime. Blame it on your 401(k) savings account and day trading. Here's a primer:

Dutch tulips -- Prices for Dutch tulips shot up and then finally collapsed in 1637 in what is considered the world's first recorded speculative bubble. That hysteria spawned a book more than 200 years later titled, "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds." That lesson in crowd psychology rings true today.

Roaring 20s -- The first stock market crash in the U.S. hit in October of 1929, bringing an end to the Roaring 20s.

Great Depression -- By 1933, nearly half of the banks in the U.S. failed. The 1929 crash was to blame, but more factors contributed and World War II, sadly, brought an end to the Depression. "Importantly, in the 1930s, in the Great Depression, the Federal Reserve, despite its mandate, was quite passive and, as a result, financial crisis became very severe, lasted essentially from 1929 to 1933," said Ben Bernanke, former Federal Reserve Chairman. More on him soon.

Black Monday -- The stock markets around the globe crashed on Monday, Oct. 19, 1987. The U.S. was in a so-called "soft landing" coming out of a recession when the bottom fell out of the market. The Dow fell 22.6 percent that day. The term "circuit breakers" became the rage following this tumble. It told of trading being halted to stop similar price drops in the future. Apple stock soared in the aftermath.

Dot com bubble -- The tech stock bubble burst in 1999-2000. IPOs for web-based brands and domains soared, then fell off a cliff. Pets.com was one of the losers. Welcome to the new millennium.

The Great Recession -- Still fresh in our minds, the U.S. economy teetered on the precipice in 2008-2009. Risky loans and a drop in housing prices triggered this economic near-Armageddon. "Too-big-to-fail" banks were rescued. Others weren't so lucky.