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stock market crash

Shortly after the author became Chairman of the Federal Reserve in 1987, the stock market plummeted 22 percent in one day.

I’d scrutinized the economy every working day for decades and had visited the Fed scores of times. Nevertheless, when I was appointed chairman in August 1987, I knew I’d have a lot to learn. That was reinforced the minute I walked in the door.

A Scottish émigré became the most powerful man in the French government, and sold hundreds of thousands of shares in land holdings in the Mississippi Valley

The curious table shown opposite, with its montage of hand-painted scenes, commemorates a grand financial debacle in eighteenth-century France that was commonly known as the Mississippi Bubble.

As the twenties roared on, a market crash became inevitable. Why? And who should have stopped it?

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