My wife Susie and I were walking down the beach last weekend discussing "Black Monday". We were discussing the amount and percentage of that drop and comparing it to what is going on in today's economy. We talked about what had happened then, and the differences in then and now.



Looking back to Friday, October 16, 1987, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped just over 100 points. That is considered just a sneeze today, however, consider that the Average stood at about 2,200 at that time. A 100 plus point drop was significant enough so that everywhere we went that weekend, people were talking about it.

I remember thinking at the time, although it was a big drop - about 4.5%, when Monday morning came, things would get back on an even keel, and "the market" would begin its climb back. Well needless to say I was wrong, really wrong. It seems that not only everywhere my wife and I had been over the weekend everyone was talking about the market, everywhere everyone went, they and everyone else was also talking about the market.

It seemed forever until Monday morning arrived. Looking back, the first 100 point day on Wall Street had come in August 1982. The stock market had been over 1,000 in the 1970's but retreated and due to a long recession hadn't been above again until '82. From there it more than doubled in a little over five years. Not a bad return. As stock brokers, we all had a right to be a little optimistic.

Well, as history has recorded, that isn't what happened. In less than an hour after the opening bell, the market was down another 100 points. That was only the start as the Dow lost 500 plus points on Monday, October 19, 1987. The day has been referred to as "Black Monday" ever since. Think of it, people's portfolios had lost over 25% in just two days of trading.

Some changes in regulations were made as a result of "Black Monday". These were changes made to prevent that from ever happening again. But to look where we are today, one must wonder, what happened?

By the spring of 1988, the markets were more calm and climbing once again. It wouldn't be long before the Dow was closing back above 2,000 again. Some regulatory changes had increased everyone's confidence and order, once again, had returned to the financial markets. Then things started to change.

There appears to be more greed on Wall Street for starters. Add to that the loosening of regulations, the dramatically falling value of the dollar, real estate values which plummeted over a year ago and have yet to recover, foreclosures at all time highs, a $700,000,000,000.00 bailout which was basically forced on the American public as part of a plan to clean up for the errors of corporate America's and regulator's failures and well what do we have?

We are already in a recession no matter what the Federal Government says. I foresee the economy falling deeper and wider into the recession. Deeper meaning more bank failures, more lost jobs, more foreclosures, more time before real estate prices begin to rise, and your purchasing power steadily declining with the reduced value of the dollar. Wider meaning that eventually this recession will be very broad in scope as far as the number of people's lives it touches.

The same two questions keep coming back to me. The first is somewhat rhetorical, and that is; haven't you seen this coming for a long time? The second is simple, given all of these conditions, what are you doing to secure your and your family's financial future?